This paper presents a pneumatic XY manipulator capable of moving a tool-plate along a surface whose position in the work plane is not known a priori while applying a desired contact force to this surface. The manipulator is particularly economical, as it is constructed entirely of commercial components. This paper describes construction, control strategy, and tuning methods for the system. Experimental results are satisfactory in terms of system robustness and accuracy, but require improvement with respect to the speed with which the tool-plate can be moved along the contact trajectory.