Whats your favourite handy gadget for your Laser ?

[Chris J Anderson]

What little gadgets have you made / purchased to assist with using your laser ?

My favourite so far is these magnets.
They work well for keeping sheet material flat, including stainless steel plates.

Cheers,
Chris

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[Mitchell Tutty]

I'd second you on the magnets, using the exact magnets on your bed and work a treat.

[Rodne Gold]

By far the best item to have , is a 10x loupe or a printers loupe
You can diagnose all sorts of laser issues using one.

[David Somers]

Good morning Rodne!

Can you expand on your use of a loupe for those of us pre-newbies out here?

Dave

[Chris DeGerolamo]

I wouldn't call it a gadget, but a stack of post-its makes a great adjustable shim.

[Henri Sallinen]

Some iron blocks that are thin enough so that the laser air assist nozzle can go over them. I use them to hold curved materials down. I've covered the blocks with some tape to ease the hard corners. These are the most used "gadgets" that I use.

The magnet idea would be great if you could utilize it with the honeycomb! Mine atleast isn't magnetic...

[Tim Bateson]

A 'D-cell' battery wrapped in duct tape. I place it inside most things that go on the rotor. Keeps lightweight objects like wine flutes in good contact with the rollers.

[Doug Griffith]

Not a gadget but I fold up the edges of aluminum foil to build a tray that sits within the OEM tray beneath the cutting grid. It catches all the small parts that fall through and makes the machine easier to clean. So... aluminum foil. And a small mirror to lay on the bed beneath the lens during cleaning. It and a flashlight help to make sure the lens is clean. I would clean the lens less often if I had to remove it every time.

[Tim Bateson]

I forgot my latest improvement - Added LED lights inside the cabinet - Front & back. Makes a HUGE difference on the Mini. It's been a few months now, but it seems they've been there forever - seems so natural - I wonder how I ever worked without them.

[Kev Williams]

My 'gadgets' are similar to Henri's- I have about 20 each 12" long x 1" x 1/2" thick steel bars, and ditto for some 12" x 3/4" x 1-3/4" bars. A customer made them up for me for free. They hold down leather so it won't pucker up. They hold down the edges (and middles if there's room) of warped aluminum and plastic. They hold down the edges of SS panels that warp while Cermarking. I push 'em against whatever I have pushed against the rulers so it can't walk. I set them against matrixed batches of plates so they all stay together. The 2" bars usually weigh enough, but if I need more weight I can set one or two of the 1" bars on top, and there's still clearance for the lens to pass over them. I probably use them 80% of the time I use a laser.

A 1" bar is keeping this piece of aluminum in place...

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[Jon Sollee]

Also added a 48" strip of super bright LED lights on our VYTEK LSTAR gantry. We have a controller as well to dim the lights from 100%-25%. Way cool.

[Rich Harman]

I use magnets too but those tiny ones in the first post would do nothing for me. I use a dozen 1/2" x 1/2" x 2" neodymium magnets to hold down 1/4' ply and acrylic. When they land on the bare honeycomb it takes two hands to pull them off.

I also always have a dental pick-like tool handy for checking to see if pieces are getting cut all the way through. It also helps in removing the cut pieces sometimes. An exacto knife works almost as well.

[Dave Sheldrake]

+1 on the dental picks

cheers

Dave

ps: my most often used tool...a router digital height gauge with a tab on the lens barrel to make tiny height adjustments or my adjustable height bed mod

[Brian R Cain]

My 'gadgets' are similar to Henri's- I have about 20 each 12" long x 1" x 1/2" thick steel bars, and ditto for some 12" x 3/4" x 1-3/4" bars.

Yep, same here except mine were a set of engineers parallels - precision ground bars 6" long x 1/2" thick and in pairs of varying height from 7/8" up to 2". They were great for some set ups, particularly when using very thin materials on the honeycomb bed as sometimes the material would slip under the rulers whereas the ground edges of the parallels prevented this. Plus I knew exactly how far away from the rulers I was working. Also very good for raising the material off the bed to prevent flashback. One setup I regularly used was for cutting large odd-shaped pieces out of 1/2" acrylic where any flashback was unacceptable. I could arrange the parallels underneath the material to support the cut piece as well as using others as registration stops.

J&L Industrial Supply often sell sets of these on special offer at bargain prices and they come in a nice box to help you look after them, so if you sign up for their monthly mag, you'll know when they are around, plus they may have other goodies you fancy. Don't worry, they don't pester you just because they have your details. Definitely something for a wish list. You can also get sets in other thicknesses, which as an engineer I also had. The 1/8" thick ones were just right for keeping things flat and avoiding the cone hitting them.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Dental pick
wheel weights - to keep items flat
dish rack - a wire rack for drying dishes. This works great to stack a bunch of plaques, name plates or whatever and let the paint dry without them touching or taking up too much space.
old business cards (Quality card stock. Not cheap paper) - these are great for weeding transfer tape or paint fillling
JDS 6" plastic ruler - I use that thing every day!
Wood blocks similar to Ken's, but I stack them on top of the rulers when I have an item that cannot make contact with the ruler guides to line it up properly.

Last, but not least, we've all seen them... a chair cushion made for wooden chairs. It seems I'm always kneeling down to work on a project to save my back. Tossing the chair cushion on the floor makes it much easier on the knees!

Forgot to add my dial calipers. I keep them right in front of my keyboard too!