Anyone make their own laser pin table?

[Keith Upton]

Just wondering if anyone has made their own laser pin table to hold things up off the table while vector cutting so that that don't get any splash back? If so, what did you use and how did you go about making it?

[Frédéric PARROT]

Hello,

Take a look to this thread (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?170173-Pin-Table).

[Keith Upton]

Thanks Fred, I'll give that a read. I used the site search and a site specific search on Google and that thread did not turn up... weird.

[Dave Gabry]

I used 1/4" aluminum plate and 1/8" pop rivets for mine. super-glued the rivets to the popper(?) and ground them all to the same length, about 1 1/4" long.
Dave

[Keith Upton]

Thanks Dave. What do you typically cut on that table and do you get any flashback from the aluminum base as that distance?

[Dave Sheldrake]

281103

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I used to make them :)

On the base Keith, sandblast or sandpaper the surface to prevent back scatter.

cheers

Dave

[Keith Upton]

That looks really interesting Dave, did you machine those pins your self?

I will mainly be doing production runs of the same products over and over out of 1/8 clear acrylic, so I was thinking about making some fixed layout pin tables. Since the size and shape will not change, I'm think I could make some cheap ones out of 3/4 MDF with a thin aluminum or steel sheet on top (to protect it) and those wooden furniture dowels. The parts are large enough that the 1/4 dowels will not be an issue and since I can place them in a single spot and leave them forever, being made of wood is not an issue. I've read a couple of times here that the base warping could be an issue with consent reheating, but I never actually found a post where someone experienced this in practice. Plus, I think the metal sheet would guard against this?


Am I missing anything in my thought process?

[Jason Hilton]

That's a really cool table Dave!

[Dave Sheldrake]

Thanks guys, the pins took about 9 months to develop as they had to prevent backscatter even when the beam struck them direct. I used to make them for sale but having to deal with big cutting orders every day I stopped doing the tables after about a year. (I have a couple of bar fed cnc's)

I'd go with a 6mm to 10mm thick aluminium plate Keith, that will move the heat away from the cutting point very quickly, one of the easiest pins will be an upturned golf tee, stick it down with hot glue and even if the beam strikes it you won't get any backscatter (just make sure the pins aren't PVC)

Make sure you sandblast or sand the top surface to eliminate any backscatter.

cheers

Dave

[Ernest Martin]

I made a vector cutting table from hex comb honey comb aluminum. The aluminum is a little thicker than aluminum foil, and it has a fence along the right side and back so I can push material in the corner just like a regular flat table. If anybody wants to see it I will post pictures.

[David Somers]

Would love to see your approach Ernest! Thanks!

And thanks for sharing that design Mr Sheldrake!!

Dave

[Scott Woodson]

I've used wooden goft tees inverted and glued to 1/8 plywood. Since the tees are wood, no problem with laser hitting. Use pegboard and feed them through in the pattern you like. Apply glue to the tops of the tees and place a piece of thin plywood on top. Once the glue dries you can remove the pegboard and you have a custom pin table.

[Kev Williams]

I don't do all that much cutting, but when I need a "pin table", I have a shotglass-sized tupperware cup full of 10/32 sized SS lockwashers. I just pour a bunch out, take about 1 or 2 minutes to space them out for what I need, and they work great. The way they're cut only a tiny bit of the raised split touches what it's holding up, and since a whole lot aren't really needed, it's rare that the laser ever hits one anyway. The rise at the split measures .075", which is enough space to keep the bottom of what I'm cutting clean, but low enough that it doesn't render my 1/8" thick ruler-stops useless.

!281140

[Dave Gabry]

Hi Keith,
Did some cutting on 1/4" poplar today, there's no flashback on the underside.
Dave

[Deane Donaghy]

I used an pre-made air con ducting grille which are usually square or honeycomb grid and relatively inexpensive.

[Keith Upton]

Hi Keith,
Did some cutting on 1/4" poplar today, there's no flashback on the underside.
Dave

Dave, did you just put your substrate directly on top of the 1/4 poplar, no pins at all? What were you cutting?

[Dave Gabry]

Hi Keith,
The 1/4" poplar is what was being cut. It was sitting on top of the pins so had about 1.25" of space between the wood and the aluminum plate holding the pins.
The aluminum plate has 1/8" holes every inch to hold the pins, and a right-angle bracket in the top left corner to align the material being cut. I just put a few pins in the plate so the wood was supported at both ends. I'm happy with how the pin table turned out, it's way better than the honeycomb that came with the laser.
Dave

[Keith Upton]

Thanks Dave, a little sleep deprived these days ;)

[Ernest Martin]

Ok Thought I posted these this morning but come to check and bingo I didn't
The first picture is a picture of the grate in my Epilog Summit
2nd picture is the bottom of a cut piece of 1/8'' cherry
3rd bottom view
4th side view
5th top view
6th and 7th are pictures of my laser table I made a duct work to mount under the table to draw smoke away, and that's what the holes are for.


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[Keith Upton]

That looks pretty good too Ernest. The honeycombs are much larger that my stock Epilog vector table.

[Lance Mills]

Hi Keith, I have an MDF board which covers the full work table space and locates onto 4 allen head screws for easy repositioning, which I laser cut a series of 15m holes, offset rows and about 50mm apart then I bought a jar of 8 x 1" screws and glued them head down to the board with a polyurethane glue between the holes all over the face of the board. Works excellently for cutting paper, card etc.

[Keith Upton]

Thanks Lance. I assume that the MDF is not getting too badly cut up since you are using high speeds and relativity low power to cut the paper?

[Lance Mills]

Not cut up but getting charred a bit,easy to use tho :)

[walter hofmann]

that's my version of a pin table,
its a /4 hole perforated SS sheet with 1/4 dowel center they fit exactly in the holes of the SS plate.
greetngs
walt

[Keith Upton]

Walt, and you get not flashback burns when cutting wood or acrylic with that setup?

[Keith Upton]

Since I've not had time to build a proper permanent pin table, this weekend I raided my son's Lego bin and came up with this...


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I drilled the center holes on my drill press so that there would not be any plastic down inside the Legos flame up later on (as there could be if I just let the laser cut them out and the plug fell down inside). I must say it worked way better than I thought it would! None of the pieces fell down and there was good air flow to extract the fumes. I was able to build the whole thing in about an hour and I let the glue (just plain old white glue) holding the Legos to the board dry overnight.

My son was a little upset that I drilled holes in his bricks, but the offer to buy him new ones soothed that out. lol

I was actually able to find these online for about $0.05 each, so really cheap to work with as well. I might even stack them two high and see if that helps with airflow and de-focusing the laser on the backing bard some more.