I use a long piece of something that looks like corian, (but it's not corian, it's a very thick light weight plastic) it's about 1 inch thick. You may want to go somewhere where they make counter tops and ask them to cut you a remnant the length that you think you'll be able to work with on your machine. My son brought me this piece from work and it seems to work well. He works for an Industrial Rubber Co. I hope this helps.