Last but not least, I decided to put a new wasteboard in place. I had 2 pieces of 6 mm MDF cut to 750 x 750 mm panels.
Then, cut a hole pattern in both of them that matches my threaded insert spacing.
I glued the first one to my bed. This one is not supposed to be interchangeable, it’s just part of the bed and a visual aid for the actual cutting area of my machine. I did a facing pass so this surface would be dead flat in relation to the cutting plane. Note that I did some visual leveling and squaring before doing this.
Now that the bed is ready, I fixed the second sheet of MDF with 16 countersunk screws. This will be the actual wasteboard and can easily be replaced if needed. I did a facing operation on this sheet as well, just to get rid of the inconsistencies in the MDF itself.
You’ll notice that both pictures show a different facing operation. That’s because I do them in 2 passes: a 0.8 mm pass along the Y, and a 0.2 mm along the X. This may be overkill, but it leaves a better surface than if you were to do a simple 1 mm pass.
Finally, I can say that the huge upgrade is done, but not before I put the enclosure back in place.
Hooray! Now I really want to start doing fun projects again!