How do you set up your workspace?

Technical Details
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The Maslow is a unique system in that it rides on a sled instead of a gantry. As a result, it is critically important to have your workpiece surrounded with equal level pieces that I refer to as ‘skirting’.

Obviously, everyone on this forum has to deal with this. How do you deal with it, and what do you do to fasten your work? Clamps, screws, double-sided tape, etc? I’d love to see what other people are doing.

I have some ideas in mind, and will probably develop something to share in time. It would be great to see some other ideas to help me come up with some solutions.

Here is an example from a carve I did yesterday.

Skirting
Skirting1920×2560 393 KB

On the far left is a 1/8" sheet of hardy board that was already screwed to the wasteboard for a previous project. This provides the left side stability so that the rest of the pieces can be pushed up tight against it.

My workpiece consists of eight 2"x12" x 3/8" thick panels, and there are two vertical 3/8" runners attached to the back to hold them all together. In all, it is about 7/8" thick. The green painters tape outlines the piece I am going to carve. All the rest is skirting.

Four of the pieces are 7/8" artist panels from the dollar store, still in the plastic to protect them from the sled. A piece of 3/4" pine with 1/8" hardboard under it, and another multi-panel piece of the same thickness.

Everything is secured with 6x5/8 screws at the edge to stop them from being able to move to the right, and the aforementioned 1/8 board on the left stops movement that way.

How do you affix your workpiece to do a carve?

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As far as attaching to the frame, I have a sheet of particle board that I use as a waste board. I usually am cutting on oversized stock, so with that I usually just screw my project directly into it. I have used double sided tape on my other CNC, and will probably try that on my next project, but that would mainly be to see if I can do thru cuts without having to use tabs (they can be a pain to cut and sand flush depending on what you are cutting). For skirting (if needed) I have plenty of scraps around that I screw in to the spoil board. For a really small project I did, I cut a pocket into a foam insulation sheet and placed the stock in the pocket, secured through both with screws.

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What purpose does this skirting have? I used to just screw my workpeice to the waste board…

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preventing the sled from tipping as it is at or near the edge of your workpiece.

David Lang

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@Rick sorry it took so long to respond, I’ve had a busy week, but @dlang is correct. the skirting is to ensure there is continuous surface for the sled to rid on so it does not tip. This depends on how much stock I have and what size job I am cutting. Even on some of the full sheet projects I’ve had, I needed skirting to make sur the sled did not tip over.