Cantilever beams and similar structures are found in machining systems. Often a set of cantilever beams attached to each other on spindle-tool holder and tool holder-cutter interfaces position the cutting edge with respect to the workpiece. Small static stiffness leads to deformations and geometrical errors due to the process forces, while small dynamic stiffness initiates chatter vibrations. Dynamic stiffness of structures could be improved by passive or active damping methods. Passive damping methods are suitable design choices considering their low cost and ease of application. In this paper, the constrained layer damping (CLD) method is compared to the application of viscoelastic damper materials on the clamping region and the resulting improvements are compared in terms of enhancement of damping ratio and dynamic stiffness. The maximum enhancement of dynamic stiffness was 487% using a thick layer of viscoelastic material on the clamping region. The effect of the thickness of the viscoelastic material is also studied which shows a linear increase in dynamic stiffness as the thickness of the viscoelastic layer increases.