Jig for round plate

[Gregg Vaughn]

I have a clock on the way from Tropar with a 4.25" round plate on it. The job calls for a rope border around the plate along with a badge and text in the center. The set up will need to be spot on with no room for error so I am trying to think of the best way to get the set up right. The best thought I can come up with is setting the plate on a printed 4.25" square after having centered the laser on the center of the square and using the center engraving setting on my Epilog.

Is there a better way?

[Doug Griffith]

I have a clock on the way from Tropar with a 4.25" round plate on it. The job calls for a rope border around the plate along with a badge and text in the center. The set up will need to be spot on with no room for error so I am trying to think of the best way to get the set up right. The best thought I can come up with is setting the plate on a printed 4.25" square after having centered the laser on the center of the square and using the center engraving setting on my Epilog.

Is there a better way?

Create the 4.25" square as a layer in the working engraving file and align it to the circle. Laser the square lightly onto the template substrate. Place the clock aligned to the square. Disable the layer the square is on and laser away.

[Dan Hintz]

For something where registration needs to be tight for a one-off, I'll put some painter's tape down on the bed. Put an exact copy of the plate's outline (or at least important points) into your drawing and laser just that outline onto the tape. Line up the plate to the newly lasered outline, remove the outline from the image, and press the big green 'go' button... and pray ;)

[Scott Shepherd]

For things like that, I have many pieces of scrap acrylic. I'll put a scrap piece in, vector cut the shape out, and then drop the object into the shape. Takes about 2 minutes and it'll be dead on. You can use MDF or any other scrap you have laying around.

[Gregg Vaughn]

All great ideas! Thanks all

[Chuck Stone]

I did something similar, lasered clock faces onto saw blades. I scanned the
blade and created an outline, then lasered the outline onto a piece of card
stock taped to the bed. That gave me the placement. I left the outline in
the file but set the transparency to zero (did it in Photoshop) so it didn't
print again, but used it for placement of other elements in the file. I saved
just the outline file, saving me that setup time if I want to repeat the file.
I just saved the card stock with the laser file name and dimensions written
on it.

[Dan Hintz]

chuck,

I've always wondered... what do you use to post on SMC? Your posts are always line-length limited...

[Chuck Stone]

chuck,

I've always wondered... what do you use to post on SMC? Your posts are always line-length limited...

LOL .. sorry about that, it's just a personal preference. I have a hard time
reading long lines, as I tend to lose my place when moving all the way back
from right to left and shifting down a line.

So I limit my line length to make it easier for ME to read, and I only hope
that it is easier for others. I use a special tool for that. I like to call it the
Return Key :p

[Bill Cunningham]

Gee! Mines labeled 'Enter' of course, my old one was labeled Caret/Linefeed/letters.. But that was 'old' and even had Kleinschmit written on the front of it :D

[Chuck Stone]

I'm just mad that mine doesn't go 'ding! -Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!"anymore

[Bill Cunningham]

I'm just mad that mine doesn't go 'ding!
-Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!"anymore
Ya, but they are faster than 60wpm now..ha

[Dan Hintz]

Ya, but they are faster than 60wpm now..ha
The machine, not necessarily the operator...

[Chuck Stone]

Yeah.. what's this 'per minute' he's talking about?
I've only got two index fingers..

[Bill Cunningham]

The machine, not necessarily the operator...

Actually, back in the 70's and 80's when I used to spend a lot of time on the 20 meter RTTY Freqs, I got pretty good and could 'ride the keys' @ 60wpm (including the Car/Ret, linefeed, letters keys at the end of each line)when I moved up to 100wpm machine that stopped PDQ.. :D As soon as computers took over, I lost a lot of interest in RTTY. Kleinschmit was a mechanical genius, and just watching those machines work, was just as spellbinding as watching the laser was, way back at the beginning..