That looks great, I just have a quick question, how do you make sure the pieces don’t fly away once they are fully cut (that happens to me almost every time) or get caught in the endmill?
Hi Paul,
Tabs, 3 on each. The design is carved both sides and the boards are pre-finished so double sided tape etc is not an option for me. I found the size of the tabs is important, not too small as to break with the cutting forces put on them and not too big as to be a pain afterwards. I find that 3mm wide and 2mm high is my Goldylocks size.
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Thanks Mark, that’s very useful info.
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So, that makes me curious about how you apply your second color; looks like gold.
I use 4 stencils one for each panel. They are cut using the same design file. The stencils sits on another jig away from the machine on top of the panels about to be cut and the design is sprayed on with acrylic paint. 2 reference pegs keep everything in alignment as they pass through the process. you can just see them in the first pic there. Pre-finishing makes the whole process much faster as they are mostly done coming off the machine, just trim the tabs and a light sand around the edge. There is greater material waste, but the labour (the biggest cost by a mile) is much less than dealing with baubles individually. I cut 864 baubles in just over 7 days the whole deal took about 36 hours.
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I’ve realized that a big problem with my setup is board thickness. Even when I joint and plane every board, it might be unrealistic to expect every piece to be the exact same thickness. Especially when I’m using onion skin as a workholding method. Either way this setup is much better than my last, thanks to everyone for all the advice.
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I’d like to see a picture of the resulting setup! 
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Hi Greg,
I’m assuming you are just cutting out the pieces.
I’m quite new to this, more experienced users please correct me if I’m giving a bum steer!
If your boards are not exactly uniform in thickness, you could maybe account for this by setting your z to the thickest board and then adjusting your stock thickness to that in your toolpath. You would obviously need to do this each time you cut a batch, but it shouldn’t add much to the time.
If you are resigned to clamping in this fashion with varying board thicknesses, then you probably should Z-zero to you wasteboard surface. That will require some recalculation of your toolpaths as a minimum.
At least evaluate that method.
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I am also cutting a .14in inlay pocket so Z-height is critical for each board.
Agreed, setting zero to your [trammed] wasteboard and setting the material thickness to your thickest piece would be the better option in my opinion.
Whenever I’m cutting through material I use the wasteboard as a zero, that way it doesn’t get cut up if your material thickness input isn’t spot on
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