Part holder for my fiber

[John Lifer]

I've use a lot of different things to hold the various parts I've engraved on my fiber. Single parts are easy. But reproducing location on production type run of several hundred parts is more of a challenge. I've built jigs for some, and simply placed on table or my clamp for some.

But recently did a short run for a customer of his new item and it's odd shape, only one flat side, but logo is angled to that side. So I struggled a bit. He brought some more yesterday and I spent a few more minutes thinking and embedded them in some non hardening clay I use. Grab one side to remove with forceps after engraving. 2 second engraving. Today thought about it more to keep my clay intact to use next time. 3d printed a box so that I have square side to line up table.
Works fine. Thought idea might help someone...

Oh, will use a bit of clay to hold to table. Oh, that box is 40mm long per side, part is about 20mm longest side. And back side isn't flat either. Just a hard to hold item.

[Trey Tull]

I can’t see the image but I do sort of the same thing. I engrave a recess in some wood with my co2 and the cut the outside square. Then I bolt it to the XY table and use that to center the part.

[Brian Lamb]

I've been using the 3D printer to create jigs for the laser quite often. I make a precision level and the surface I used to engrave with the CNC mill is not flat, it slopes about 5º. The machine engraving was too long of a process, so the latest batch I anodized black, printed up a jig to locate and hold the part I wanted to engrave flat, and the laser engraving turned out much better.

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[Kev Williams]

I'm lucky enough to have several New Hermes self centering clamps kicking around that help with holding things; my favorite jig is this pin-holder for holding odd stuff (I've lost all but 2 of the pins, so I use broken 1/8" tool shanks ;) - hey, they work)

This is a rifle trigger, it's very '3D', the protrusion on the other side
fits in the open space, and the pins level it
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this kind of part can be tough to hold so it locates accurately over and over,
the pins create a 'only fits one way' holder. Many parts (like these) I don't
even need to tighten/loosen the clamp, once the clamp's sweet spot is found,
I can just drop in the parts, and they locate with
almost no free-play--
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just pieces of aluminum with a bunch of holes, but they work :)

[Gary Hair]

I'm in the middle of creating about 40 fixtures with our new 3D printer to make alignment easier. Instead of focusing for each part, I'm making the fixture so that the engravable surfaces are all at the same height. It should increase throughput by about 50% and accuracy should be close to 100% where now it's about 95%. LOVE my printer!


I've been using the 3D printer to create jigs for the laser quite often. I make a precision level and the surface I used to engrave with the CNC mill is not flat, it slopes about 5º. The machine engraving was too long of a process, so the latest batch I anodized black, printed up a jig to locate and hold the part I wanted to engrave flat, and the laser engraving turned out much better.

399159 399160 399161