Normally parts can be secured or clamped from the outer edges for machining. Unfortunately this isn’t possible with a longboards, since the entire perimeter is cutout the board would come loose.

In the past we secured it from the edges, then after the truck mounting holes were drilled we would fasten the board to the mount through those holes. This required extra time, and even using rubber spacers the boards would sometime get marked up.

It was time to replace the bed of the CNC machine so I decided to incorporate a vacuum system.

The system uses PVC piping underneath the machine and hooks up to a 6hp ShopVac. In order to mount the boards the fixture needed to match the contours on the board. We make 12 boards that are pressed on 7 different molds, so a fixture was made to match the contours of each mold. In addition to the surface it also needed channels to for better airflow.

Notice the fixture also have bolts on each end, these are used to align the board on the mount, they match up with holes in the presses.

The fixtures work great! As intended they reduce setup time and prevent the boards from being blemish by mounting bolts.