Some time ago I wrote about Pin table (a.k.a. vector table) I made for my laser cutter. It kind of worked, but I had issue with rivets moving slightly. This caused some issues when cutting/engraving at high speed, as whole work-piece shook. I also wanted to have more pins to hold smaller parts form falling down constantly. Thus I revisited my pin table and made some improvements.
First thing I did was to remove all rivets and mark grid at 1″ increments, basically doubling number of pins (before grid was 2″). Then I drilled at those places lots of extra holes. This took a tall on my 1/8″ drill bit, which got dull from the first time I made this pin table. Fortunately I had more, but by the end of this project I dulled a total of 3 bits 🙂
One row in the middle I was not able to reach with my drill press, so I decided to just leave it as is.
Main improvement was securing rivets in the holes. I heard some people using epoxy, but I wanted a less permanent solution. I used acrylic caulk instead.
It holds rivets in place nicely, but they can still be removed if needed. And I’m hoping it’s not toxic when hit by laser, however I cannot guarantee that. Use it at your own risk.
Easy way to apply caulk is to squeeze a dub on piece of paper, dip each rivet into it and then insert into aluminum sheet.
I also had to buy another box of 100 rivets.
This setup works really well for me now. I’m now thinking of a way to secure pin table and add some kind of rulers on the sides for placing work piece correctly.
One comment on “DIY Pin table Update”
Pingback:
LensDigital – DIY Pin Table for laser cutter