Pin Bed- not flameable/ steel or aluminum- see Willies post on page 2

[Stephen Carlton]

At Russ' suggestion I ditched the honeycomb bed that came with my machine. A good decision. I wanted to make a bed of pins like Russ but with materials that I had on hand. Russ' creativity seemed to have rubbed off on me as I quickly realized that a rivet would be ideal because it has a shoulder to fix it exatly in place and is clipped at an exact length.

I have enclosed pictures to show the bed and the rivets that I used. I works great.

To get the rivets into the bed I drilled a hole in the end of a 3/4" square piece of wood, I place the rivet in the hole then use a mallet to push the rivet into the bed. Drill the holes in the bed with a drill press or use your laser to make the holes and ensure they are square.

Last picture is the bed in action while engraving a Gallifryan name tag (Dr. Who).

[Pete Cyr]

Nice idea - -did you drill or laser your holes?

[Ian Bell]

I like your idea of using rivets, one of the members on here "preben" made his own using "punk spikes" holding in place on to a steel plate using magnets, not sure if the posts have been recoverable since the data dilemna

[Gene Uselman]

Did you use mdf for the board? I would think that would scorch/burn from the laser beam passing thru what you are cutting. I use high power and high speed as much as possible and have to be careful what is on the bottom of my cabinet [24" down]. I can scorch the paint off the bottom is left in one place too long. I have used aluminum foil as a heat shield.

[Larry Powell]

Stephen,
I think this is a great idea, Sir.

[Dave Vigness]

FYI, there is another post some where. A guy used small magnets and drywall screws on his steel base plate for an infinite pin bed. A dab of adhesive between the magnets and the screw keep them together.

[Jeffrey Aley]

FYI, there is another post some where. A guy used small magnets and drywall screws on his steel base plate for an infinite pin bed. A dab of adhesive between the magnets and the screw keep them together.

That'd be me. And it happens that they are deck screws, not drywall screws, simply because that's what I had laying around. Use short screws (1.25"); longer ones may wobble.

The magnets are small neodymium magnets from Amazon. The diameter is about the same as the head of the screws (3mm? 5mm? - something like that).

No adhesive required - the screws are magnetic!

[Dave Vigness]

I love the flexibility of the screws and magnets. I cut a lot of shapes from MDF for her crafts, almost no straight lines.

The only reason I was thinking some adhesive was to keep the magnets with the screws as you move them around, or is that not a problem?

[Jeffrey Aley]

The only reason I was thinking some adhesive was to keep the magnets with the screws as you move them around, or is that not a problem?

I don't worry about it - I just slide the magnet (and screw) to where I need it.

I think Pepsi (haven't seen him post here in a while) fastened his magnets to his punk spikes, but I don't remember how he did it.

[Dave Vigness]

Will keep that in mind, haven't decided on what kind of pin bed I want to do. I have a lot of large projects in the 18 to 20 inch range, but a number of small 2" as well.

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