Better indexing bed

I drilled through the HandiBot base holes with a 1/4 bit into a base board. I then inserted 1/4 dowels into these to be able to remove the bot and reposition it in the same spot. I setup a second set of indexed holes 8 inches up, but as we'll see that isn't going to work.


Next I added a spoiler board onto this base. Not really necessary here, but I'm thinking about how to eventually make a subbase that is permanent with spoiled on top of it.


Here we now see the HandiBot in position on top of the spoiler board, no work material in place yet.


I wanted to try drilling jig holes into the spoiler and down into the base. My thinking was in some instances maybe you want to remove the spoiler, attach a work piece to it, then return it. So it should be index able to the base the HandiBot is indexed to.


So now we see a problem. Note the holes up at the top don't match the ones at the bottom. That's because the HandiBot can only move a bit past 7 and 1/2 inches, not 8. It bangs and grinds then keeps running. My stop button on the bot isn't responding any longer so I didn't get to the PC button quick enough. Well, and I watched it for a bit to understand what was happening. Now I just got some advice from David Bryan that may fix this, I'll update this post when I have a chance to do that.

One other thing interesting in this picture is the X/Y 0 position. In another thread I mentioned not understanding why it didn't seem to do to the same zero. I wasn't thinking. The hole at the start there isn't at 0. It's edges are at 0. That's why when resetting up the bit was never over that hole. My bad, I should have thought a bit more. And yes, the top most hole that didn't reach 8 wasn't at 8 either, it's perimeter was just inside.

Now, how does it work out?

Not bad. I'll post on this project separately, it almost came out. This involved removing the HandiBot, moving the piece, replacing the HandiBot, then flipping the piece over and using the indexing holes to do it all again. It came real close to working. So this bed is worth further investment.

One area for further investigation is finding a way to clamp the Handibot securely to the new indexed base. Not sure about that one. I think I'd also change this next time to move the HandiBot side to side rather than front to back. Just a more convenient feed direction IMO.