Centering live edge material

[Stephen50]

I have a 18" x 24" machine bed and will be tiling a 14" x 30" live edge material project using Aspire. What process could be used to maintain the material in a straight line while I tool path my project?

[coryatjohn]

Drill index holes. That's how I'd do it.

[srwtlc]

If you can't drill through the piece in a waste area, mount it on a sled of ply/mdf of a given size and use that size in your drawing for the indexing reference. Also, mount a ledger strip on the long edge of your bed to slide the edge of the sled along to keep it parallel. Another option would be to just make some marks on the piece and measure from a known edge or mark on your bed, slide it over and make sure the marks still measure the same distance and clamp it down. Kind of depends on how much accuracy is needed. I'll often take a top down photo of live edge pieces, bring them into Aspire, and scale the photo to the same size as the piece as best as can be. This gives you a good reference to lay out your design on. Sometimes a small knot or feature can be used for alignment as well as for XY zero.

[scottp55]

I'd add a Y fence and use a sled(carrier board) Like Scott said, and just slide it along Y axis to either reference dowels cut in sled, or marks cut in sled/fence by the machine.

Adding a straight on pic into your App Data/Materials/Wood once it's mounted on carrier board(and making the job Exactly that size)
can make placement very accurate depending on the pic.

I used it to make sure the 2 "Imperfect" spots and my font were placed correctly in the Walnut.

AND comes in VERY handy when cutting branches and firewood!
This January project would have driven me Crazy without the App Data pic method!

[Red F]

I agree with the Scotts.

[evan]

As always, beautiful work Scott.