The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

OMTech 60 W Laser: Adjustable Honeycomb Stops

When you (well, I) get fussy about angular alignment on the laser cutter’s honeycomb platform, an adjustable stop or two may come in handy:

Laser Honeycomb - Adjustable Pins
Laser Honeycomb – Adjustable Pins

That’s a serving suggestion based on a true story, because I really wasn’t all that fussy about precise engraving alignment on those signs.

A more typical situation on a smaller scale:

Laser Honeycomb - Adjustable Pins - engraving
Laser Honeycomb – Adjustable Pins – engraving

The scrap of MDF with three holes provides angular alignment for the little two-color acrylic test coupon, so you can tuck successive squares into the corner, hammer them with slightly different patterns, then compare the results.

The stops are an off-center hole (the ±3 text gives the offset) in an MDF disk with an acetal post:

Laser Honeycomb - Adjustable Pins - detail
Laser Honeycomb – Adjustable Pins – detail

The 3 mm SHCS provides a convenient way to turn the post and disk, so the threading isn’t critical. Sufficiently snug threading will let you turn the screw counterclockwise without loosening it, but that surely depends on how tightly the 8 mm section fits into the honeycomb. The larger top section is 9mm, cleaned up from the rod’s nominal 3/8 inch OD, for a jam fit into the 8.8 mm + 0.1 mm kerf hole.

The SVG images as a GitHub Gist:

Loading
Sorry, something went wrong. Reload?
Sorry, we cannot display this file.
Sorry, this file is invalid so it cannot be displayed.

The ±5 mm offset disk may be more useful with larger items and now you know where those three holes came from.

Comments

3 responses to “OMTech 60 W Laser: Adjustable Honeycomb Stops”

  1. Homage Tektronix Circuit Computer: Laser-Engraved Hairline Tests – The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning Avatar

    […] I built for the Sherline atop the laser’s honeycomb platform and wedged it into place with eccentric stops, then dropped a cursor milled on the Sherline in […]

  2. OMTech 60 W Laser: Axis Angle Check – The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning Avatar

    […] the short square) to the edge, held to the honeycomb with magnets, and kept in alignment with two adjustable stops snugged against it. A few smaller magnets can hold the sheet flat against the honeycomb as […]

  3. Epoxy Mixing Rack – The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning Avatar

    […] LightBurn project has the sign outline as a tool layer to simplify aligning the victims with the laser path, plus one layer defining the cuts for the three plates. I exported it as an SVG […]