Purchasing Laser Engraver Accessories

So you went out and bought a laser to make money in the side hustle game. There are certainly laser engraver accessories that you need, such as an air assist or an extension kit but there are a lot of accessories that you don’t need.

Think about this. You are on a laser forum and someone puts a picture of a jig that can laser multiple widgets at one time. Those widgets could be, pens, pencils, bottle openers, wine corks, business cards, etc.

I just want you to give some thought to this:

• If you have never laser engraved a keychain bottle opener
• If no one has ever asked you to laser engrave a keychain bottle opener
• If you have never received an order to do keychain bottle openers

DO YOU NEED TO PURCHASE A JIG TO ENGRAVE KEYCHAIN BOTTLE OPENERS?

It really kind of twists my shorts to see people selling SIMPLE templates and jigs to the new laser operator. Part of being a laser operator and small business person is learning your machine. Learning its capabilities. And streamlining your operations for efficiencies sake. Time is money, right?

Capabilities and Versatilities

Believe me, I’ve been here. Early on in my laser engraving side hustle journey I would look at a jig and think, “I can make millions laser engraving keychain bottle openers. I need that jig.”

And then you find that the only thing you have made is another place to catch dust.

On the flip side of that, let’s say you have substantial orders to make bottle openers and you are making them one at a time. Then I would say, yeah, it might be beneficial to purchase a jig.

Don’t Buy Laser Engraver Accessories

Make them.

Let’s make our own jig. It’s not that hard. In fact, if you don’t want to read on, you can download my files here. That will take you to the xTool Projects page.

I made a large one and chopped one down so that it fits the xTool F1.

The key to this whole thing is simply to make a 12mm x 20mm rectangle and cut it out.

Expand The Concept

Okay, A 12mm x 20mm hold holds a keychain bottle opener. An 86mm x 54mm rectangle holds a metal business card or RFID wallet. Actually you might want to make them a half a millimeter larger so they aren’t too tight. Add a couple of 20mm circles centered on both sides, weld all the shapes together, and you have an easy way to extract them.

Use your array tool to make as many as are practical to fit in your laser.

Also, in order to take accurate measurements, every laser operator should own a set of digital calipers. The ones I have linked are nice and will read in millimeters or inches at the push of a button. Even though I’m red, white, and blue, I typically use the metric system. Millimeters for me. I lived in Japan for about 16 years and I am sorry. We got it wrong over here. We should have went metric. So much more accurate and no fractions to convert.

Make, Not Buy, Your Laser Engraver Accessories

If you really think about what you need done, you can make your own jigs. It usually just involves making a rectangular or circular hole in a piece of wood and glueing a bottom board to the template. Sometimes you don’t even need that. The array tools in Lightburn or xTool XCS software make it easy to add exact copies of your design distanced at an interval that you determine.