Simple Material Holder

Free Laser Designs
#1

I admittedly am not a master of CAD. Therefore my designs have been generated in nothing other than PowerPoint and then saved as a PDF. I found I can actually do a lot and the accuracy is up to 1/8" which is the thickness of the material so it works out nicely. The laser does pass over cuts more than once using this method so it’s not perfect but it is what I have at the moment. (Disclaimer done)

I wanted to be able to place material securely that is smaller than the bed. I also wanted it to be secure enough to potentially remove the held material and then place it back onto the bed in the same position. I came up with some holders that I can use as magnetic edge guides. I used 1/4" draftboard and some rare earth magnets from Amazon.com "Neodymium Magnets N52 Super Strong – Pack of 12 Powerful Rare Earth Magnets – Round 1.26"D x 0.06" Thin Magnetic Discs – Craft, Science or DIY Magnets ". board Holder V4.pdf (6.8 KB)

I hope others find this useful as well. I do plan to learn Fusion 360 to make more complex and more accurate designs but you have to start somewhere right?

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New Material Holder (1)
Files for Making Tools You Will Probably Need
New Material Holder
Magnets on the bed of the Glowforge
3D Printed Neodymium Magnet Material Hold Down
#2

Can you show a picture of it in action?

I tend to just throw magnets on top of my pieces but occasionally have trouble with that when clearance might be an issue.

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#3

Here you go

Holding
Holding.jpg480×640 107 KB
Bottom

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Looking for these
#4

Very nice!

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#5

Those are great!

I used to get marketing guys who’d send me ground plans drawn in Excel - you use what you got and if it works it works :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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#6

Awesome design, thanks so much for it!

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#7

I LOVE practical projects. What a great idea. I really like your design.

I tried neodymium magnets and they were too strong for me. Do you find with your design it’s fairly easy to lift the holders?

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#8

that is why I added the tab at the top. It holds very tight but you can still lift it.

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#9

Nice. Are you sure those magnets are big enough? :wink:

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#10

Fantastic first design! I’ll be making a few.

When you are ready to graguate to Fusion 360 I have some tutorials in the matrix and of course there are hundreds upon hundreds of vidios in Youtube.

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#11

You mean 1/8 or medium.

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#12

Would you mind if I cleaned this up and posted the clean copy?

It is a great design and I can’t wait to get the right size magnets to assemble them but the file (and you fully copped to this) is not very efficient cutting.

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#13

I’d put the magnets in the top piece not the bottom - that way they won’t stay stuck to the bed. They’ll be fine working through the lower layer (especially if you engrave a divot in that one for them to pocket into. I’ve found that glue doesn’t hold these magnets very well over time.

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#14

Yes thanks for the correction

#15

Great idea to use tabs for lifting! PowerPoint is a definitely somewhere to start - can’t wait until you roll out some Fusion 360 projects.

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#16

Clever design! Thanks for sharing it! :grinning:

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#17

Hi, I built some of these, but when I used them I think they were partly attracted to the laser head and moved when it passed over them. Has anyone experienced this?

#18

You ever make the cleaned up version?

#19

I never got permission from the op. The good news is that while not the most efficient cut ever they work fine as is.

#20

If I am cutting near the edge, will the printer head hit this?