We recently set up our SB Buddy and it's dedicated cyclone dust collector. The Buddy will be used by undergraduate and Graduate students in our Fine Arts program.

What we haven't done is decide on work holding for the various materials we will be cutting. We will have multiple departments with the School of Fine arts using the machine: Ceramics, Sculpture, Expanded Media, Graphic Design...etc. This means we will be cutting wood, acrylic, plaster, and foam. Everything BUT metal. Unfortunately, we do not have a vacuum table. To compound the matter we are not going to be using any metal fasteners as the faculty is concerned that students will cut them and break the tooling and/or hurt themselves. Not that a student has ever done something like that.

The vinyl nails SB recommends seem a little flimsy for work holding; has anyone had success with them? My experience is with manual and CNC mills, so I want to have a Kurt vise and some T-Bolts....which obviously isn't going to happen.

Festool's perforated table tops work great. I have one that was bought new when they were first released in NA. My thought was to replicate the design on an elevated spoil board to take advantage of the Z travel we have.

Any out-of-the-box ideas for work holding that have worked for you?