TLDNR: The glowforge did exactly what I asked it to, but I asked it to do something stupid.
Key take away points:
- When making a stand for tall skinny things, support them accurately at the top and the bottom
- When making a stand for tall skinny pointy things, don’t put them too close together.
- Only make a support for as many things as you need at hand, not as many things as you have. This is particularly important when your eyes are not so great and the things all look the same.
- Prototype in cheap materials first.
Like a lot of folks who work in metal I like files. Maybe I like them more then most, or maybe I am hoarder, it’s a toss up. My collection of files has been disorganized for many many years, and I decided to do something about it. I also wanted to spend some time with fusion360 and see how it compared to OnShape.
So first off, here is what I am dealing with.
The needle files were a main sore point (pun intended). I made this ugly wood “stand” in 10 minutes 30 years ago and have been cursing myself out ever since. The holes are either too small, or too big, and getting at the ones in the middle is dangerous.
Glowforge to the rescue, right?
I made this in fusion.
Short ones will go in the front, tall ones in the back (still feeling optimistic at this point).
I brought it into illustrator as a dxf of each face I cared about and did the holes there. Illustrator is pretty much second nature for me and I was starting to curse at fusion and scare the cat.
Upload the SVG and hit print. 36 minutes (!?!?). I could have made it much faster by intelligently grouping the little engraved dots in the bottom, but I just let it run and read a book.
So many holes.
I had intended that it would stand on my bench like the old one, but realized that if I put some holes in the back I could also hang it on the pegboard. OK, just grab the back and add some keyholes, toss the piece in the machine, align with grid, and cut keyholes. At this point I discovered that until you choose a material depth the preview image is seriously off, but once I chose the right thickness it was easy to line up and get very close by eye.
Glue it together (I was too lazy to be accurate with kerf) and hang it up and it looks great. Then start putting files in it and realize I have replicated at least one mistake from my previous situation.
Also discover that putting it on and taking it off the pegboard causes all the files to jump around.
I thought maybe that adding better holders at the bottom would help, so… more holes!
Sadly I think this thing is just a loser design. I am hoping I can repurpose it for something else, but I definitely have some better ideas for storing the files.
Glowforge worked great though!