Quote Originally Posted by georgetheforge View Post

I asked him about material holding etc and he thought the same as me- although there's a vac table it's not that efficient- and if you were to cut out a circle, for example, as you got to the end there's a danger of it falling back onto the bit- ruining it....
This is an issue even if the machine is flat. All material needs clamping securely to prevent slippage into cutters path, even the waste to a big degree.
If your using a vacuum system on a vertical machine then obviously it will need designing to account for the extra force required to hold in vertical position. This is obviously where they went wrong because they tried to use a vacuum system designed for flat machine in the vertical position which is obviosly going to be comprimised if not masively over rated for flat bed use.!!

In my experience so far other than the actuall intial clamping it's absolutly no different to working flat with mechanical clamping methods. The intial clamping or holding the material while clamping is ever so slightly more awkward but easily got round by the use of a temporey slidding ledge for material to rest against while first clamp goes on after that it's no different.
With the correct sized vacuum bed it would be a doddle.!!

Surely the folding design defeats the purpose of having it vertical as you will stll need the area to lay flat.? . . . Plus it won't be so easy to do and maintain accurate machine setup.!!