My adventure with CNC

[Hawkeye]

Something that works well for test cuts is fine-grain styrofoam A sharp end mill turning at a fairly high speed can walk through that stuff. I have my X2 CNC set up to cut foam that way, or with a hot-wire tool. That lets me make patterns for lost-foam castings.

The MDF over the table is a good idea as well. It's amazing how fast a little mill can move when it's doing the wrong thing.