LaserUser.com Forum (formerly RDWorksLab)

Still working on the glue up and finishing for the other two of these so I will add them over the next couple of days.

Five at this stage but I have a few other ideas for others.

1: Marking Knife - used for accurate marking cross grain for joints in particular. More accurate than pencil and an edge to use a chisel against.
2: Marking Gauge - fairly common item in woodworking this one includes a zero referenced ruler on the slide.
3: Center Gauge - Adjustable rollers and pin to find a center line on a range of materials. Quick and easy to use and more should be more accurate than a ruler and pencil.
4: Center Finder Too - Great way to find the center of a disc or square of material.
5: Awl - great for marking out soft materials prior to working on them or prior to drilling holes.

Marking Knife

I made this from three layers of 1mm Jarrah Ply and two inner layers of 3mm Softwood ply. Other options could be used but this allowed me to add the cross braces across the layers for extra strength with some 1mm. Glue of choice was epoxy but Titebond or similar should be up to the job too. Finish as you like but this one is in beeswax and oil.

The blade was cut from an old saw blade I got from the wall of my Grandfathers shed. The included pattern was the rough blank used but marking it out with a square and scribe is recommended. There is some metalworking skills needed to process this sort of metal but basically anneal the metal to soften it for working, then reheat and quench after to help re harden for use. Plenty of youtube videos out there from people more skilled than me.

Glue and stack it up and clamp flat to dry. Finish with 120-220 grit sandpaper then apply a finish.

The SVG is in the zipfile along with the Fusion 360 Cad file if you want to tweak it or just split the SVG into 1 and 3mm as needed for your own Laser use.

These are great!
I don't know if this video has already been posted here, but it's nice to watch https://youtu.be/jWnFOidwS7w (7 Homemade Marking tools for Woodwork).

Pask, Stumpy Nubs and a few of the other 'real' work working channels are some of the inspiration for these just with a Laser Twist.

Glue up and first coat of wax is now on the Center Finder. I still need to grab some longer 5mm Philips head screws and grind the point but otherwise it is ready to go as a build. I will firm up a hardware list and sources for them tomorrow along with the files and some more pictures.

Center Finder

Done and tested.

For the glue up make the bar first with the longer tabs glued in place to help with alighnment. Then stack the handle sections and glue them to the bar after the bar is dry. You will notice the top two discs have a 1mm hole while the rest run a 2mm hole for the pin. This is deliberate to allow the pin to be inserted deep with a tiny tip protruding and then a push from the top to eject or lengthen it.

Plenty of ways to make a hardened pin but I used one of the spare pins I got for making my Laser pin table. ** If using a dremel only use the reinforced discs and throw the ones without in the bin before you hurt or blind yourself.

After a few test runs maybe a sharp pencil lead might be better than a metal spike depending on the timber you are using. There is 6mm available to enlarge the hole to suit a pencil as an option between the two verticals.

Hardware

2 of M5x35 screws
4 of M5 Washers
2 of M5 Wingnuts
2 of 3D printer rollers (could also use a 5mm ID bearing) Buy a few they are handy and cheap
1 of M4x14 screw
1 of M4x8 insert great to have on hand regardless https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3288776 ... 4c4dQvuT0p
1 of 2mm Pin/Drill or pencil lead.

The original Fusion 360 Cad file can be found here as it is a few Mb https://a360.co/2K3m8Yd and the SVG is below in a ZIP file.

Center Finder Too

So I rewatched the Pask video (linked above) this evening over a Beer and came up with this one. Make it from 3mm Acrylic, Hardwood, Ply or even MDF (a bit soft but would work). If your laser does a good job on 6mm or 1/4" then tweak to a single layer of parts and tweak the alignment joiners.

I haven't made this one yet but there is nothing really to go wrong. As per one of the jpegs below I have pushed the straight edge of the long blade 0.2mm wider than would be accurate to allow a cleanup sanding on it in the case of timber. The two working faces of the Pac Man shapes just need to be trimmed evenly with each other so they were not pushed out but important to keep that even and at 90 degrees.

If you go Acrylic depending on the glue make sure you are trimmed first and you have an accurate 45 degree device to get it right before you are stuck. The blade could be tweaked later but far from ideal or easy.

SVG and the Fusion file are in the Zip file as it is only fairly small.

I think I will make mine out of Acrylic just to mix it up a bit.

Kudos Tim- I often use 1/8 or 1/4" dowels [or acrylic rods] to index pieces together for easy assembly and gluing.

The nice thing with Lasers is we can easily cut square dowels for square holes too

Marking Gauge

As a rough order Glue up the beam first without the end pin cap and ruler using Titebond or similar. Do the same with the Fence but don't glue in the small sections for the beam clamp. Clean up close to size and level of finish you are heading for after the glue dries.

*** Really important watch you don't sand to much off the beam sides or the hole through the fence and that it remains a very square snug to firm fit.

Trim back the glue in the fence if needed and glue in the ply sections for the retention clamp. Score the other half of the 2mm hole for the pin in the beam cap. This could have been marked with a Laser engrave but I chose not to. Test your pin and the cap fits snuggly into place on the beam.

The pin is similar to the center marking gauge above but in this case shortened so it just protrudes from the beam. Rehardened by heating and quenching after shaping.

Lightly scuff the ruler side you are gluing down tho the beam and clean with acetone or IPA. Use Epoxy here for the beam cap and ruler. Wait until dry then carefully ream out the 2mm hole for the pin.

Sand the Beam and Fence so they are straight and true on all faces. The more accurate you are here the better it will work. The pin should be just a push fit and as the only forces are lateral or up into the hole but if it is sloppy a drop of CA would work. If you ever need to replace it then it should be possible to punch it out from the top.

The small copper insert will stop the ruler getting marked by the screw or a bit of aluminium can would also work. Just trim the edges as shown so the scale remains visible.

The design uses the same 4x8mm insert from the center finder linked above and use any sort of appropriate knurled or wing type bolt you can get.

The SVG is in the Zip file below and if you are interested the Fusion 360 file is here https://a360.co/33yN7CG

Mine again is finished in Beeswax and Oil.

Awl Scratch Awl or whatever you want to call it even as an Ice Pick it should do the job very nicely

This one started off as a 4mm/5/16" Awl but after looking at what blanks for the pin were available I raised it to 6mm. For those of you stuck with Inches post easing the hole to 1/4" will be an easy task.

For the Point I went with a junky 6mm Masonary bit partly as it suited the approximate 100mm finished length I wanted and also the flutes are not as sharp as a standard twist drill. Cut off the Tungsten tip with a dremel or grinder. Like the other points above here heat it to cherry red and leave air cool to anneal it for working. Place the cooled drill into a drill and spin it against a grinder be it bench or hand to roughly shape (BE CAREFUL lest to insert your bits into spinny stuff !!!) Hit it with a file then as a fairly low speed to knock some of the rough bits down and then progress through the grades or wet and dry until you have a fairly reasonable point. At this time heat it back up again but quench to re temper the tip.

I chose a four flat tip as opposed to a round one as the edges are useful for slightly reaming out holes. Either fine (400 grit and higher) wet and dry on glass or a stone at this point won't take to long to cut the flats into it.

I tweaked the design slightly from the earlier version too and have hidden the alignment pins inside the top and bottom segments. The bits have a 0.18mm kerf allowed for them but test assemble into the correct order tweaking the pins if needed (Refer to the side view here viewtopic.php?f=111&t=3901&p=23664#p23664 as the middle sections are very close in diameter)

Start at the bottom and glue your way up leaving the top and bottom separated at this stage. Clamp and leave until dry. At this stage you may need to trim the alignment pins to length as the plyt/glue won't be perfect height. Ease the hole if needed for the point and glue the upper and lower disc in place. I chose to glue the point in later with epoxy but even some wood glue would be all that is needed to hold it.

To sand or not was a bit of a question so I split the difference a bit by dropping the Awl into a drill as a makeshift Lathe smoothing the top but leaving a flat as shown and partially smoothing the bottom in part because it helps grip and partly because I like the look. Wax and oil to finish and use it for the next few decades

SVG's are in the Zip file below.

Tim, what is this wax and oil finish you speak of? And how is it done, please. I hate finishing things and am all about easy. I have done enough hard in my life. Gene

The oil and wax mix is partly because I had it but Paste Wax gets used a bunch on the US youtube woodworking channels for coating tools. Mine is Beeswax and Orange Oil and more made for furniture. I like the smell and even if you scratch it so much easier than patching a varnish finish. It isn't as hard wearing as a varnish or as element proof but it is fast. Wax on Wax off to quote Mr. Miyagi

For all round toughness I still like and use Oil based Varnishes but they are painfully slow so I have been opting for water base on projects that need to be a bit more resilient.