Table material for CNC Router!

At $300 a sheet for Acoya, I hope they provided lube.

Actually, it's "Tricoya", but you're right about that. At least you can use water-based lube. Building materials are expensive here in Germany, but mostly the quality is pretty good.

I had heard of Acoya, but I guess that's the stick lumber. From their

wood, including enhanced dimensional stability and durability, hold

"Ouch!" nonetheless. I guess with a near 40% tax, it would increase prices on everything there. How's the refugee situation where you are?

ass, and also some wood and machinable aluminum. I would like to have a tab le which would allow me to cut wet, which I would be doing only occasionall y. I could get a slotted aluminum table easily enough, but I kind of enjoy just drilling mounting holes where I need them. The first option would be a solid piece of aluminum, but then I would need coolant to drill the mounti ng holes. I'm wondering if there might be some composite material out there which would be easier to drill, and also be waterproof, and perhaps a bit more durable than the MDF. Any ideas?

ious fixtures, including vacuum plates for my (much smaller) mill. It works great, but I don't know if it's available in larger sizes.

That's the stuff. It probably wouldn't handle heat very well, but the coola nt ought to keep that in check.

Yes, there is a small amount of mounding where you drive in screws, but tha t can be handled by either pre-drilling, counterboring or giving it a small whack with the ball end of a ball-pein hammer, or with a ball-end punch.

As I said, it's working well for me, but this is a much smaller machine (Ta ig CNC mill), and even though the AZEK boards are much more expensive than Douglas Fir (or SYP, which is more prevalent around here), it's still quite affordable in fixturing-sized quantities.

Corian is very expensive, and takes hachine screws after drilling and tapping, but not wood screws.

1/4" thick fiberglass reinforced plastic or phenolic with tee nuts and glue?

Slab of slate, or soapstone, or other machinable rock?

I'd be worried about the threads stripping.

and also some wood and machinable aluminum. I would like to have a table w hich would allow me to cut wet, which I would be doing only occasionally. I could get a slotted aluminum table easily enough, but I kind of enjoy just drilling mounting holes where I need them. The first option would be a sol id piece of aluminum, but then I would need coolant to drill the mounting h oles. I'm wondering if there might be some composite material out there whi ch would be easier to drill, and also be waterproof, and perhaps a bit more durable than the MDF. Any ideas?

1/2" cast polycarbonate (Lexan). You can drill, tap, helicoil, press-in ins erts.

Very expensive, but very tough stuff. We used to hammer in threaded inserts with no ill effects.

Is that on top of a VAT, or are you counting the VAT as a sales tax?

You guys and your taxes... I really don't know how my income tax compares t o yours exactly, but for a middle class guy like me I think it is about the same. Maybe a bit more, but we pay much less in property taxes. But, inste ad of making war and funding prisons with the money, the Germans subsidize preschool, so we don't pay for it additionally out of our own pocket.

There is quite a lot of stuff which gets taken care of by the state, so muc h less comes out of your own pocket. Trump's America could never adopt that model though, even if they agreed that it would benefit them. You guys are leading the human race into an early grave.

VAT and Sales tax? I also don't know the difference. I don't think there is one.

There is quite a lot of stuff which gets taken care of by the state, so much less comes out of your own pocket. Trump's America could never adopt that model though, even if they agreed that it would benefit them. You guys are leading the human race into an early grave.

VAT and Sales tax? I also don't know the difference. I don't think there is one.

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Looking at several sources, I think you're right, they're similar.

Yeah, if we got rid of paying for wars (including Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, NK, and the Wars on Poverty, Terror, and Trump, we'd do a lot better. Also, paring off about 75% of our unnecessary governmental structure, just that change could pay for healthcare and better schooling.

I believe VAT is added at every step of manufacture, while sales tax is only on retail sales. We have no sales tax in Oregon, but it's about 10.25% in California where my family still lives.

Well VAT is indeed collected at every step, but you claim it back at all but the retail level. What does suck is imports. I have to buy certain things from overseas, and the customs office includes shipping costs in its duty calculations.

Oh? How does that happen?

That does suck. That's totally unfair, but big government never said it was fair.

What is the gimmick behind free shipping of $5 items to the USA from China?

The usual term is CIF, Cost, Insurance, Freight and is the value of the item when it reaches your hands.

I'm not making this up. You just show what you have paid out, and the tax office refunds you the money. Hard to believe!

They wait until entire 40' cargo containers are full, then ship. China subsidizes the small vendors, and we all win: Chinese, Americans, and the Capitalist Way.

Many, many American vendors buy cheap Chiwanese chit, bump the price

700%, then make huge profits on it, so I don't feel bad about buying $0.02 to $5 items with free shipping from China. It leads to future purchases of similar products from the States, so these are my test products to see if I like the tech. I could have bought two LED lights from American vendors 10 years ago for about $50. Instead, I bought 35 different cheap LED lights from China for the same price. Some are still working, others are still unused in their boxes, and a few others died quick deaths. I'm still way, way ahead.

I started collecting wood, bone, and stone netsuke carvings from China. It's interesting, beautiful, and _cheap_. Works for me.

-

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

I think that the Chinese government subsidizes their post. In Germany we ca n receive imported purchases of up to like ?20 ($25) without paying duty. Probably something similar in the USA. It's pretty cool. There is qu ite a lot of useful stuff I get from China for under 25 bucks. Of course ab out a fifth of it never actually arrives, and some that does is worthless, but overall I feel like I'm benefiting.

I could have bought two LED

Right. Those LED lights on Ebay weren't even available in shops in the west ten years ago. Now they finally are, but still at a humped up price. Expec t some to fail, but most won't. I've been reading my kindle under the same Chinese "warm white" lamp for probably eight years.