I'm an artist working on an piece and am having some issues.

I want to pull a small geometric shape(3" x 1" x 3/4" high) on a piece of plexi that is approx. 10" x 13" preferably 1/8" thick clear plexi.

The problem is that I don't want to cut the shape out of the remaining plexi. I am unable to get good definition with 1/8" plexi so I tried 1/16" plexi. The problem arose when the plexi began to suck through the vacuum holes(3/16" dia.) in the platen.

I am using a fein shop vac, which is sufficient for the 1/16" thick plex, but doesn't seem to work well for 1/8". I'm in the process of converting a twin tank porter cable compressor into a vacuum press.

Any thoughts would be great