A securely-clamped piece of material can handle more aggressive feeds and speeds because the bit is less likely to react to resistance caused by the material. If your material is not clamped securely on all sides, it is more prone to movement during a carve. This can result in broken bits, the machine carving off-path, and other carving errors. In extreme cases of an aggressive feed rate and very poor clamping, the material may fly off the machine.
For projects where you are using the full material piece (or enough of the material piece that you don’t want to drill holes through it), clamping is the best method for securing your material to the wasteboard.
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Helpful Tip: To help identify good places to clamp your material in Easel, you can simulate the tool path before clamping the project. This will allow you to visualize the toolpath in advance and clamp accordingly.
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If you are not using all the material the most secure way is to mount your material directly to the waste board by screwing it to the surface of your waste board. You can do this by drilling holes into your material at the correct intervals so you can screw bolts through the material and into the threaded inserts. Keep in mind that this method is generally only useful if you are not going to use the full piece of material for your project since it requires you to drill holes through your material in order to mount it to your wasteboard.
In other cases, such as using very thin materials, double-sided tape is a reliable way to keep your material secured to the wasteboard. Using a combination of clamps and double-sided tape is one of the most reliable ways to keep materials secure.