Laser pen holder for vinyl contour cutter

thingiverse

I recently acquired a basic vinyl cutter that features a laser dot designed to facilitate the alignment of prints for contour cutting. However, the dot is offset from the actual cutting head by approximately 20mm, making it challenging to accurately line up the cutter with registration marks on the sheet. Fortunately, some cutting software enables users to input this offset value; unfortunately, my system does not possess this capability. To resolve this issue, I created a custom device that accommodates a laser dot pen, which can be obtained from eBay for a minimal cost of around £2. This device fits seamlessly into the cutter head clamp during alignment, allowing me to accurately position the cutting head before swapping it out with the actual cutter. The accompanying photos showcase the holder in the clamp and provide a close-up view of the offset. The red dot on the sticker represents the machine-generated alignment marker, while the green dot from my laser pen is precisely aligned with one of the registration marks. In addition to this solution, I designed a small clip that secures the on/off switch in place; however, users can achieve the same effect by employing a piece of tape.