How do you mount and secure material for a cutout without carving into the waste board
I mount my stock on corregated cardboard with double sided duct tape from Lowes and cut into that. You can always make a secondary table surface and mill it down with a router bit so it is level.
A wasteboard is exactly what the name implies: there to be wasted. Use a sacrificial piece of 1/8" sacrificial stock if you are really trying to keep the original bed clean.
It’s always better to cut a bit deeper than the underside of your piece, it will benefit your edge finish. I usually use about 1mm extra depth just to be sure that I am 100% through all the way around the profile.
First of all:
- I have a very rigid and precise Z-assembly (DIY)
- My waste board is skim carved so its planar to Z
For cut-through projects I typically secure the material with masking tape and CA glue. Apply masking tape to wasteboard and material, glue them togther with CA. This method is much firmer than double sided tape because the “sandwich” is rigid (the CA)
Then I zero my Z off the waste board and jog material heigh up + a small offset value.
Then I specify my total cut depth to equal material + offset value.
The tape sandwich provide enough clearance to carve through without touching the waste board, provided the Z-assembly is tight and precise enough.
Adding a thin shim underneath to raise the material is another method like xfredericox suggest. This is conveniant when you just clamp the material down. Using the masking tape method would be a hassle, because of the shim stock.