Ideas for engraving tray

[Pedro Toro]

I got my first big order. Have to engrave 250 anodized credit card holder. Looking for ideas to make a "tray" so I can place maybe 15 or 20 pieces to do the work faster.

I've been thinking of using a corrugated plastic sheet that we use for signs and cut the holes in it to work as a template to place the card holders. Is this plastic safe to engrave (PVC??).
I have some acrylic but is too thin. What other cheap material I could use?

Thanks for your help!!

[Graham Parsons]

Coroplast is, I believe, polypropylene not pvc, so you should be ok to cut it with your laser.

[Martin Boekers]

Framing Matte board, or you could use masking tape on the bed and vector cut the holes out.
Not sure why you say the acrylic is too thin, you don't need much to line them up. You also
could use a hardboard stock many stores like Lowers sell it. Cheap and cuts easily.

[Dee Gallo]

I use hardboard all the time for jigs I've used on a daily basis for years, but matboard would work fine too for a temporary job. Well worth the few bucks and time it would take to make one.

On my jigs I print the name of the jig (what it's used for), label ABCD/1234 across the top and sides for identifying spots when using different designs, and the settings used for the material. Sometimes I'll include the time it takes too. All of this is put onto a non-printing layer after the jig is made so the whole thing is used for layout of the job for perfect alignment, calling the document a template file.

cheers, dee

[Jim Beachler]

If this is going to be a one time order, I use cardboard for my one time jigs. It seems there always more coming in with every delivery.

[Tim Bateson]

I have some old press-board with lament wood grain (was a desk) that I have cut-up for this type of thing. I cut out or raster out the lament to the shapes and it works great for mass repeat production work.

[Pedro Toro]

Thanks all for your help.
I got my jig almost done. I will take some pictures to show what I've done. Remember it's my first one!
Thanks again!

[James A. Wolfe]

I like to use acrylic for my "keeper" jigs. When doing items with a rounded or beveled lower edge, I make two identical sets of cutouts in .190 acrylic and then glue spacers of an appropriate depth to hold the product in alignment. I save the file I used to make the cutouts and turn off the cut lines. That way, I can still see them in the software for aligning text or graphics but the laser ignores them during processing. Also, like Dee, I think it's important to engrave the name of the jig while cutting it. Dogtags, business cards and quilt tags look a lot alike in silhouette.