Using a Jig for a Laser to Align Engraved Items

In a previous instructable -- I showed how to make Laser Engraved Trader Joe's Meringues   I was a victim of my own success!

My niece wanted more of them and I was stuck making them one at a time.

This was a major pain in the butt.  I wanted a way to be able to make a lot of these when I needed to do so.

I came up with this low cost jig system that is made out of cardboard.

Step 1: Draw a Bounding Box in Corel Draw

The trick to using this jig is that you need to draw a bounding box (I use RGB Green) around the entire document.

When you go to print your file to the laser, tell it to ignore RGC Green.  

The reason that this is so important, is that the laser will use the bounding box to allow you to register the cardboard to the upper left corner (0,0) of the laser.

Next, draw 12 red hairline circles that are the same dimension as the votive candle holders from Target.  This is explained in the instructable on the first page.  I put the art that I had for the first set waiting ready to go.

The next step is to run the file telling the laser to only run the cut lines.  This will give you the cardboard with the holes in the right places.

After that, put the 12 votive candle holders on the bed of the laser, and load them up with the Trader Joe's Meringues.  For what it is worth, the reason that I only have 12 holders, is that is all that Trader Joes had in stock.  They all have to be the same size.

When you're done, pack them up and give them as a gift!

I made the jig at Tech Shop.  It took me about 90 minutes to figure this out -- but it has saved me hours when I make these.