F1 Pencil Jig Made with a P2
Instruction
The pencil jig is intended to be made on the P2 Laser, but used on the F1. It allows you to engrave up to 8 pencils on the F1 at a time in a quick, repeatable manner. Laser cut time is about 3 minutes total.
UPDATE JANUARY 2024 - I have created a golf tee jig add-on that enables you to engrave golf tees using the same pencil jig as a base. It can be found on XTool Projects (https://projects.xtool.com/howtos/5219).
This file is intended to be cut using the P2. More detailed instructions are contained within the file along with the settings for the specific material that I used.
Note that there are two tabs in the file:
- 5mm Tab: Includes the base plate and focus block.
- 3mm Tab: Includes the middle plate and top plate.
You should have four pieces cut out. 1) Middle Plate 2) Top Plate 3) Base Plate 4) Focus Block
With the four pieces cut, we will glue them together in this step.
Suggested order:
- Glue the middle plate and top plate together. Note that one side of each plate has square corners and the other side has rounded corners. The corners should match when glued together. Take care in aligning the edges and each row of the top jig to ensure each element is straight and squared. Allow adequate time for the glue to dry.
- Remove the metal base plate from the F1 and replace it with the wood base plate that you just cut. Apply glue to the top of the wood base plate. Place the Middle and Top plate that were glued together in step 1 on top. The slots should face to the left. Refer to the final images. THE LEFT EDGE OF THE TOP PLATE SHOULD BE DIRECTLY ALIGNED ON TOP OF THE LEFT EDGE OF THE F1 BASE. The right side of the top plate will hang over the right side of the F1 base. Allow adequate time for the glue to dry.
- Place a couple pencils in the two center slots. Turn on the F1 so that you can see the focus beam. Place the wood Focus Block piece where the beam is and set the focus. Glue the wood Focus Block piece to the wood Top Plate piece ensuring the F1 beam can focus on the wood Focus Block. Allow adequate time for the glue to dry. The height of the focus block may be slightly higher than the pencils. This shouldn't have much impact on the engraving, but you can sand down the focus block to exactly match the height if you wish.
Detailed instructions are included in the .xcs file.
The purple and red layers are set to ignore. The blue layer is set to engrave.
Load the pencils into the slots as shown. Set the focus beam from the F1 on the wood focus block of the jig.
Modify or delete the elements of the blue layer as desired. You will need to make small adjustments to the position of the object depending on the font, font size, individual characters, amount of detail in the shapes, etc. that are used.
Frame and Engrave each row individually until you are comfortable with the template.
Suggested starting point to be adjusted to your preference:
Laser: F1 Blue Diode
Max text height: Between 3 to 4.5mm
Power: 75 Speed: 100 mm/s
Lines per cm: 100
Passes: 1
Images are included with engravings at various power and speed settings. The pencils used in the images are Ticonderoga No. 2 pencils. The majority of the engravings were done at Power 80 Speed 100.
Note that if you wish you can rotate the base plate to engrave in other orientations, but the xcs template would need to be adjusted accordingly.