Abstract: A system for suspending a tool for horizontal movement with respect to a workpiece, wherein a carriage carrying said tool is slidably carried on a set of parallel rails, which are in turn slidably carried by a second set of parallel rails at right angles to the first set of rails, to allow motion of the tool along any path in a horizontal plane. The tool suspension system is disclosed in a sign cutting apparatus wherein a template and workpiece are mounted on a work table and the carriage includes a stylus for tracing a pattern on the template to be reproduced in the workpiece by movement of the tool utilizing the suspension system, which is independent of the work table.