Holding work down onto honeycomb - any ideas?

[NickWL]

I've just laser cut 200 4" plywood keys; the plywood was a bit cheap 'n cheerful and had some nasty curves built into it and I never did find a way to hold it tight down to my honeycomb.

Remember, this is a K40, the honeycomb is only 200 x 300 (mm) so we're not talking huge, heavy sheets of woods that might flatten under their own weight.

Has anyone found a good way of holding flexible (and slightly bent) items down under these conditions ... There is NOT room for a vacuum system in there!

Nick

[Tech_Marco]

Super magnet! I'll try to get some

Marco

[swamidog]

cool idea! i've been using blue painters tape.

Super magnet! I'll try to get some

Marco

[Tech_Marco]

Give me about 2 weeks and I should have some goodies for you folks to try

I been looking it for long and in fact I did find one. It was very powerful little (20mm diameter) and it bruised my finger when I was playing around it. When two pieces of those super magnet putting closer to each other, it "bang" hard and strong. It ended bruised fingers

Well, for honeycomb it shouldn't be too bad as it is not a solid iron and I think it should work out good with moderate attraction.

Marco

[NickWL]

GOOD THINKING MARCO!!!

I have some of those - seriously strong... Just tried one of my bigger ones and it holds really well to the honeycomb; I'm going to try SUGRing a knob on it to make it more manageable now.

Nick

ps - anyone who doesn't know about SUGRU has no right to be tinkering with anything mechanical! It is a magical answer to a million problems - Go to http://www.sugru.com for more info (no, I don't have shares in it - but I wish I did!)

[Maverick]

Personally, I'd probably just 3D print a bracket style clip that would fit through the honeycomb and hold like a clamp. I can print for cheep and simply extend my drawing to whatever length I need, this would eventually result in a collection of clips though. The advantage being you could grip the edge of a piece, say 2mm surface area or so and place several of them along the length of the project.

another quick thought, you could probably cut them out of acrylic on the laser if you don't have access to a 3D printer. I'm picturing something L shaped or an inverted T shape with a small 2mm lip on the narrow end for gripping.

I'd be happy to draw it out if anyone's interested.

[NickWL]

Yup - super-magnets (eBay) with Sugru knobs for handling have solved all my holding-down problems.