I cut mostly carbon fiber platess on my Shapeoko. I usually just use screws and washers near each corner of the carbon plate. I have to be careful to align the carbon with the axes of the machine, because the orientation of the carbon matters.

This little corner bracket doodad has an 35 degree angle along the inside edge. It is a bit like a French cleat. If you push a sheet of material up against it, it will sit under the cleat and stay down on the table. The thickest plates I usually work with are 4mm thick, so I made the bracket 7mm tall.

I did some cuts today on a 4mm plate. I had previously drilled a hole in the opposite corner. All I did was push the sheet into this bracket and drive a screw through that hole into the wasteboard. It didn't budge, and the plate was perfectly aligned.

It will allow me to align taller pieces, too, but it won't help hold down anything much taller than 5mm. I could have made it taller, but I didn't want too much material to disappear underneath!

The STL file is the bracket. I used the SVG to have the Shapeoko machine the holes in the correct places to keep everything perfectly aligned. The part is sized for wood-like screws with oversized heads that I happen to have on hand.

I'm too lazy to make this a Customizer, but the OpenSCAD source is there if you want to adjust hole sizes or the height.

• I Bought a CNC Machine: I Have No Idea What I'm Doing at patshead.com

Category: 3D Printer Parts