On occasion when trying to maximize the use of the material area the nozzle tip has contacted the top of the hold down screws.
Also using the screws on 3mm glass there is possibility to tighten too hard on the glass and cracking it or imparting stress in the glass sheet that can lead to cracks.
To alleviate this we turned some delrin disks with a step and lip so the edge of the step contacts the edge of the glass and the lip is what goes over the top of the glass edge. The step is 3mm so as you tighten the screw it cant press any harder on the glass and the hole for the screw is large enough to allow adjustment. The thickness of the part that rests over top of the glass is less that the nozzle height when cutting so even if the nozzle tip passed over the delrin button it wont contact.
These were made on a lathe but they could easily be 3-d printed
Well I made mine on a lathe so had one 1” round stock which is why that’s my OD. The total thickness is 4.75mm. The small diameter is 5/8” and thickness is 3 mm to match the glass thickness. The lip is 1.75 mm which is a bit thicker than the nozzle height setting tool which assured me the torch would clear if it passed overtop. The hole is 5/16” (don’t you love the mixing of metric and imperial units ).
I think if I was going to 3D print I’d make the hole a bit smaller but slot it to improve the adjustment range.
Great idea, I’ve only been cutting a few weeks but also had that issue with the nozzle catching the screw-head - we can’t afford to have too much of. border around our expensive art glass, can we? UK user of Bullseye, shocking prices!
Apologies for being a bit dim here, is this shareable code to get these 3D printed?
I know nothing of 3D printers but I know a couple of people who could print this button for me if this is what this is, and I have seen in the past, sites that you can download the whatever it’s called to print designs.
I work with glass also, so this would be incredibly useful
Yes the file that Chris provided with the extension .step should be easily imported to a 3D printer. Some printers require file with and extension .stl but folks that do 3D printing should know how to convert. I’d just download The file Chris provided and send it to your contacts that can 3D print it for you.
Brilliant thank you, will get someone to make me some, excellent idea, thanks for sharing.
I have already had one sheet crack and I initially thought it was my placement of shapes, or that I’d got a stress-y piece of glass, but it happened today as well, and I hadn’t thought about the screws causing it
We’ve had a number of sheets crack initially when we were using the default automatic tab feature which usually only places one tab. It seemed like the tab would fail on one nested piece and that would initiate a crack that would propagate across the sheet. We started using 2 tabs and it has helped alleviate the sheet cracking problem. We still use a dingle tab for small items but anything over an inch we use two.
nice idea if you have a lathe which i do have and will make a bunch of these, if you don’t have a lather or printer you can get nylon washers in all sizes from the likes of McMaster Carr and stack them as needed. I have tons of delrin and teflon and UHMW so will probably make mine to order.
i also found a great “hold down” for all sorts of parts but it is not good for instances where you need to get close to edges. i use brass or copper or stainless bars to weigh down the material. i don’t remember using a screw since i discovered this. but i rarely use my Wazer because i can’t stand using WAM and nothing else seems to work for now. maybe in a decade or two they will hire someone to write a decent program. if you don’t need support for small parts you can use up your bed a lot more since it is not needed to hold screws.
Agree that WAM is a terrible CAM software. I do all my CAD in either Inkscape or Fusion 360 and then pull it into WAM and try and do as little in WAM as reqd. recently started using a new design for hold down although strictly for glass that is rectangular. My theory is that when the bed gets warped (which it does almost always), then even using the Delrin stepped washer inevitably puts the glass under stress. Thus at stress riser locations, such as sharp corners, the bending stress results in breakage and running of the crack. So my thought was to use long strips of 3/16” thick 1” wide Delrin strips with a relief cut thicker than the 3mm glass. The edge of the hold down prevents the glass from shifting laterally while the relief cut allows a small lip above the glass to keep it from moving much vertically. The thickness of the relief is greater than the glass thickness to hopefully account for the bed warpage. I’ve attached the drawing if it helps describe the item. I make some is 4” lengths as well for small er glass pieces. The slot for the screw allows you to find a good screw location when the bed gets chewed up!
(Attachment 8-in holddown Drawing v1.pdf is missing)
nice idea if you have a lathe which i do have and will make a bunch of these, if you don’t have a lather or printer you can get nylon washers in all sizes from the likes of McMaster Carr and stack them as needed. I have tons of delrin and teflon and UHMW so will probably make mine to order.
i also found a great “hold down” for all sorts of parts but it is not good for instances where you need to get close to edges. i use brass or copper or stainless bars to weigh down the material. i don’t remember using a screw since i discovered this. but i rarely use my Wazer because i can’t stand using WAM and nothing else seems to work for now. maybe in a decade or two they will hire someone to write a decent program. if you don’t need support for small parts you can use up your bed a lot more since it is not needed to hold screws.
