Offset Corner Bracket for securing Desktop Laser

thingiverse

I wanted to use my desktop laser (Creality CR Falcon, 10W) to engrave a large number of items, and needed to stabilize it in such a way that I could easily position the material and start the process without having to precisely line it up every time. I made these brackets to secure my laser onto a 2'x2' sheet of plywood and engraved a grid into the plywood. Now I don't have to guess and reposition when I prepare something for engraving. The placement is consistently within 1-2mm in my case, which is more than enough for my needs. What makes these brackets unique is that they mount on one side of the corner and have a little bit of an offset. The feet of my laser basically go from edge to edge of the 2'x2' plywood, so I needed to mount the brackets on the side of the laser and give the bracket arms enough length to reach around the corner of the laser. Also, the arms are removeable. This lets me mount the brackets tightly around the laser's legs, but I can wiggle the arms off, and that gives me enough slack to take the laser out for storage or whatever. If you don't need them to be removable, they could certainly be glued or whatever works for you. For each bracket, you need to print a base and an arm. I recommend just printing 4 of the longer (symmetrical) arms if that works for you, but in my case one corner of the laser has a component that would obstruct a full size arm so I needed one short arm. I made a "left" and a "right" short version (relative to your perpective), in case someone needed the opposite of what I had. I printed mine in PETG with about 25% infill and they have been plenty strong for my needs. If you need your brackets to be very strong, use a strong material and turn up your infill and wall settings. The tolerance between the base and the arms is intentionally tight, to reduce any wiggle room. If you can't fit your pieces together, try sanding them or print the arms 2-5% bigger. These brackets aren't complicated so you can use them anyway you like. If you are attempting to do something like I did, and secure an object with right-edge corners snugly into place, here's my little guide: 1) Print all the bases and arms you need 2) Position your object 3) Start with one corner. Line up the bracket so the arms are firmly touching the object. Screw the bracket into place. 4) Choose another corner, set the object against the first bracket, position and attach the second bracket. 5) Repeat the same process for the remaining brackets. You should get a tighter alignment by doing one bracket at a time, rather than trying to position and attach them all at once. If this design is useful for you, please share your make cuz I'd love to see what people do with this. And if you would like to use these but need some modification or customization, let me know and I'll try to help if I can.