Referencing material

[sawkerf]

I have a relatively weak vac pump that works quite well for 99% of my work, mostly sheet goods. I am trying to get into more "artistic" products that would need an alternative method of hold-down. In the past, I have cut a corresponding shape in a scrap piece of 1/4" MDF and placed my workpiece in the void and used my vac pump to hold down. This serves two purposes, it offers additional surface for good vacuum and also locates my workpiece in the correct position on the table. I would like to be able to eliminate the whole step of making the "masking" by using shop-made pucks but I'm not sure how I would reference my workpiece. I've looked in the past, at the X,Y zeroing jig made and sold by a fellow botter. Is this what I need?

[steve_g]

Kip...
An XY zeroing jig (more properly called a fixture in this situation) is one good way to do this. However with the fixture you still have to accurately locate it Parallel to the X and Y axis. If you use a zeroing fixture, you can cut it on the bot and include locating pins. After locating on the pins you could then use the zeroing cup to get very accurate locating.

Another way to do it would be to lightly cut the perimeter of the fixture with the puck into your spoil board and eyeball locate it that way. If you know where you located your mark, you know where you located the fixture. This method is limited to your ability to eyeball the location manually and possibly to your XY zero routines repeatability.

Hope this makes sense!

SG
I’m assuming you were talking about the zeroing fixture that has a copper pipe cap permanently imbedded in each fixture.