I don’t like the short working time of Bondo. We used it for the lettering. It starts gelling in like 3 minutes.
This minion has a bunch of West System epoxy and slow hardener. Mixed with microlight fairing filler it will make a nice putty with which to fill those grooves.
Howdy, howdy, from minion central. After a quick working dinner at Pollo Regio, we have reported for duty.
Tonight’s objective is to finish filling the vacuum troughs. Although 1 1/2 zones have been filled with water putty, we have decided to mill it out replace it with marine epoxy. During dinner a change of plans came about. The new plan is to complete the second zone with water putty and fill the front four zones with epoxy.
Thrn after some use we can reassess the situation and see if one approach stands out as the best. Our solution allows for us to mill out any existing filler and replace it.
Drugs of choice
Well that was interesting. The epoxy looked nice and level, then an epiphany. Hey let’s see what happens if we turn the vacuum on. The answer, quick, mix more epoxy.
After second pass of epoxy with the vacuum on.
Still not perfect, but should be serviceable after we resurface the board.
Hopefully you haven’t now epoxied the spoil board to the phenolic. 
Well, we tried a third technique where we shot the water putty into the groove via self filled caulk tubes and then finished with a putty knife. The water putty was mixed to a very thick waffle batter consistency.
At this point in the process we can easily say the surface looks great! Hey, don’t be so judgey.
Anyway, that’s a wrap for tonight.
You put the putty on top of the epoxy?
so you can putty while you putty
(You put the putty on top of the epoxy?) No, only by accident. We have three different sealing tests.
All three of the processes were less than enjoyable. We will find out by measuring the zone’s vacuum as to effectiveness, then over time we will discover any longevity issues.
Hello CNCers,
The circus is back in town. Time to slice some unwanted filler off of the vacuum board. The spindle program warmup has begun.
What 0.015 or 15 thousandth pass looks like.
For those wondering, yes it hurts when the cutter flings epoxy shavings into you. Feels like you’re being sand blasted.
First water putty failure. Manually applied without vacuum being on. We will dig it out and reapply.
First indication that the surface to phenolic vacuum sealing solution is holding up. The inline vacuum filter isn’t clogged up after all of the surfacing passes. Experienced users will appreciate the meaning of this.
Can we all just stop for a second and admire that sexy ass torque wrench. I mean, damn, she is a beauty, and help folks consistently lock in their endmill. Thank you thank you thank you for having 1 for the multicam
Except she isn’t smart enough to smack them on the back of the head when they try to torque the collet by holding both wrenches in their hands instead of properly backing the collet wrench against the z-axis plate like we have all been taught. I suspect this is the cause of the supposed “my bit came loose” accidents.
To be fair it is highly sketchy to really torque on that thing with barely mating collet wrenches that want to shoot off, especially in the direction of your bit. Always the operation that makes me most nervous.
Not sure 25 ft-lbs is "really torque"ing…
https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/MultiCam_CNC_Router#Torque_Wrench_for_Collet
