your welcome i know i don’t have that kind of money to rebuy one if something happened all of a sudden it was like 15 a month to add or create a policy for it to add to my other stuff again good luck and enjoy i know you will…
1 Like
My advice to my CNC students (laser & router) is to “make all the mistakes”.
You learn most from things that don’t work out as you planned. Except for lasering PVC or catching it on fire, you won’t break it. (It may still break but not generally from anything you do, it’s an electronic device.)
Don’t be afraid. We’ve all been there 
7 Likes
Make your pins out of Lexan plastic works very good and pins last a long time
Lexan is a brand name, not a type of material. Lexan sells both acrylic and polycarbonate sheeting under that brand (and home improvement stores carry both). Acrylic is great, but polycarbonate is not something you want to laser cut.
1 Like
No sir, it is a brand name used by GE but it is only for their Polycarbonate. Acrylic even if produced by GE will go by some other brand name.
BTW, Polycarbonate while not dangerous lasers quite poorly but Acrylic does great.
7 Likes
well I,m glad you know what i mean
Great first print. Now make some more because they break and you will need them. Looking forward to seeing what you make with your Glowforge.
5 Likes
The holdown pins are a great way to use the small pieces of material that would be to small for a project.
5 Likes
You will use those a lot. I made 16, need to make more. They do wear out, and sometimes, just because boards can warp a little, you’ll need more to hold it down. So you’ll definitely want more. I store mine in the “snap and store box” found in the “Your first cuts” section. 
2 Likes
Are the honeycomb pins too small for anyone else’s tray?
I bought an extra crumb tray from the spare parts store.
The holes in this tray are larger than my original one.
The pins fit tight in the old one but are too loose to hold anything down in the new one.
For me they fit at one angle but not the other - so I rotate 90º if they’re loose. If yours are loose everywhere I’d increase the size of the pattern by a few % points and test
1 Like
I too have this issue and came here hoping to find an answer or at least a file for new pins to cut .
My old pins dont do fit anywhere close .
i had to bump up the size a bit to get them to work well with my tray.
There is a more recent design that works across a broad thickness range of materials and provides much more force if needed. This has been invaluable for some materials that are significantly warped. I can not find the post, or even the file on my machine, but I printed a bunch of them and they work great. They do not depend on the width of the honeycomb, but instead clip onto the bottom of it, then are wedged in-place.
The originals still work fine, my “ultimate” version work better for me, but these are really great and would work for anyone. Sorry I can’t find the source, but from this pic, it would be trivial to recreate.
13 Likes
brilliant design.
I recreated them for those that want to try them. Took all of 2 minutes in Inkscape.
THIS IS NOT MY ORIGINAL IDEA.
I wish I could find the post/user that came up with them, I can’t even find the file on my computer to track it down. But they are really handy, so hopefully this helps others…
clips.svg.zip (855 Bytes)
10 Likes
I’ll add - as can be seen in my pic, I have these and also the “traditional” pins in a box on my machine.
My “ultimate” pins work much better for me, the design is shared here. Strictly based on the original from this thread, but improved to work better for me.
Sometimes, the ones that grip inside the honeycomb simply don’t work, so this other design can help. So print up a bunch and keep them handy! I made up dozens from scraps.
3 Likes