I use a piece of plywood with a nylon board on the plywood. I tried nylon cutting boards and they worked for a while and just switched to nylon squares from CW and they work so much better. The new ones have a waffle pattern so the leg pods slide easier. The banging sound comes from the legs wanting to move outward. I was working on my unit today for hours, and not one bang, and I used to get a bang every few minutes.