An apparatus is provided for handling overlay sheet material on a cutting apparatus including a conveyor for moving work material in a longitudinal direction and a support for positioning a tensioner frame adjacent the conveyor. A tensioner frame, attached to the support, has a nip wheel and a drive for rotating the nip wheel with a tangential speed in excess of the longitudinal conveyor speed attached to the tensioner frame. The nip wheel engages the overlay sheet material applying a tension thereto in the same longitudinal direction as the conveyor.