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This is more of a craft project then a woodworking project. I wanted to take some Scrabble Tiles and use them to spell out the grand kids names. So I found some sellers on Etsy that had sets of letters. I got a complete set and a almost complete set with some letters damaged. I then had to resort to shopping local to find a pair of "N"'s to get all the letters I needed.

I got a bunch of magnets, 1/4" dia, and thin with adhesive backs. The simple idea was to stick a magnet on the back of the letter and be done. Testing this our proved that the magnet was stronger then the adhesive. So being a wild and crazy guy I decided to indent the magnets in the tiles. This was better but I'm not super happy yet. We will get back to that later.

The letters for this phase totaled 65. I may do parents ones later?? So after thinking about the best way to do this I figured that since I had a Shaper Origin I might as well use it. So I figured that if I made a MDF jig to hold the letters I could then use the on the machine circle to design and place a 1/4" circle which I then could helix cut.

As it turns out with as many as 3 different sets of letters and the manufacturing tolerance of tiles this wasn't going to be as easy as I hoped. While most of the tiles were close to a uniform size not all of them were. I did not want to get to involved in jig design so I experimented with a jig that all the tiles could fit in, some being very tight, others just right and then a few more that were quite loose. The quite loose ones were what I was worried about.

The very loose tile would stay in place but the tile could and would move enough to misshape the holes. Bright idea was to use some masking tape to hold them, and that worked great!

So lets take a look at what I have set up.
The tile shape plus dog bones allow the tile to come in and out and if need be some extra help getting them out if they are tight. The indentation was only part way so for decent fitting tiles could be removed with fingers.
When they were too loose I just put some tape on them first, worked great.
Now back to the pesky magnets being stronger then the adhesive. I'm experimenting with adding a drop of CA glue to the hole. Will have to see if they work as well as I hope. I hate to think I have to peel off all the adhesive first.........

Anyway more to come on this adventure.

Ed

I used epoxy glue on magnets to hold them in place in a recessed hole a few years back. None have come loose yet. I also took some 80 grit sandpaper to the surface of the magnet that was to be glued. Hint: Be sure to orient all of the magnet poles the same.

After evaluation I decided to go with the glue on the magnets. The holes are a press fit so they might even stay on their own??

Had not thought about orient......... well to late now. These magnets are really thin, it was hard enough to peal them apart and get the backing off then pressed into the holes, 65 times. Once in place they look like this:
The magnets are listed as .040" thick. They come packed in a tube of 20 as seen here:
They will come with a metal place card piece like this:
Anyway the work is done and with days to spare.

Ed

Not one of the names on my list but it is time of year appropriate.
A couple of grand kids in Covid protocol so these are moving to New Years gifts....... or beyond.

Ed

The material used for the tile-holding jig appears to be Corian or equivalent.

I have found that that material cuts clean and smooth and its density and stability is perfect for such small holding fixtures. Better than acrylic.

Expensive when purchased as plates but I found a lot of it in kitchen countertops discarded at the salvage yard.

reible wrote: Thu Dec 23, 2021 7:32 pm
Not one of the names on my list but it is time of year appropriate.

Very nice job, Ed, I love it. My family didn’t play Scrabble when I was growing up but it’s a big game with my in-laws’. I’m slow, and would play 4 point words like “NOEL” just because it’s holiday appropriate, so I don’t win much.

SteveMaryland wrote: Thu Dec 23, 2021 8:31 pm The material used for the tile-holding jig appears to be Corian or equivalent.

I have found that that material cuts clean and smooth and its density and stability is perfect for such small holding fixtures. Better than acrylic.

Expensive when purchased as plates but I found a lot of it in kitchen countertops discarded at the salvage yard.

The jig is made from MDF. Color of images is off a bit due to lighting.

Might be making more of these, but not having enough "N"'s will mean more shopping in hopes of finding more or ordering another set off ebay or etsy so not going to happen for a while.

Ed

After a little prompting I went ahead and did our children's and spouses and yes one for the wife and me. I the two of us have to wait on a new order of magnets, ran out a little early as I lost one and broke one..... or something like that. Still would have been short by 9 but now that is 11.

So I was setting at 65 letters then had to add another to differentiate a father son issue so that then became 66. The new work was added 43 more for a grand total of 109 letters.

Also had to get more of the place card stands. Questionable finish on some of them and only had a dozen to start with. So got two more packs which took care of the 7 more I needed and gave me all nice ones. Not sure what to do with the rest, could sand and repaint???

Ed