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Easy xTool M1 Jewelry Organizer

I love organizers. I told a friend last week that they needed to talk me down from only making organizers because if you gave me the choice, that’s all I would do.

I especially love it when organizers double as wall art. My plant wall/bookshelf situation is still one of my favorite projects:

Today, I have project that checks all of those boxes, and it’s really easy, because the laser cutter does all of the work . . . enter, this jewelery organizer!

Materials Needed to make a jewelry organizer

  • Jewelry Organizer SVG Files
  • Laser Cutter – I have the 10 Watt xTool M1 Diode laser, but anything more powerful will work as well. Anything less powerful will probably not, including the Glowforge Aura.
  • 1/2″ Plywood – I used SandePly from Home Depot. They do sell this in project panels, so you don’t have to buy a big sheet.
  • 1/8″ Plywood – I buy large pieces from my local Woodcraft store, but if you don’t have a table saw to cut it down, finding an affordable source on Etsy is a good idea.
  • Optional stain or tinted wax – I used some old antiquing wax from Miss Mustard Seed. Here’s the modern version.
  • Wood Glue
  • (2) 1″ Cup Hooks
  • 3/8″ Dowel Rod
  • Gold Spray Paint

Cutting the Pattern

The Body Pieces

The trickiest thing to cut is the 1/2″ plywood, because the xTool M1 (and most crafting laser cutters) are not intended to cut wood that thick. But it can be done!

I’m going to give instructions for the xTool M1, but you can do this same process with other laser cutters, you’ll just want to test on some scrap plywood first to make sure you’ve got the settings right.

First off, cut the pattern as normal. I used a power of 100, speed of 2, with three passes.

The plywood looks like this:

See those circles (burnt splotches) in each corner? I’m basically burning those all the way through. I did a ton of testing on this, and you can read all about the theory in this post.

But for now, just know that you’ll want to cut them (and only them, set your laser cutter to ignore the rest of the pattern) with the following settings:

PowerSpeedPassesThickness
80630.24 in

Note that I’ve changed the thickness from 0.48 to 0.24. This is so that the laser is focused at the measurement where the wood that is being cut is located. Without changing this value, each pass has diminishing returns because the laser is less and less focused.

However, this also burns the top of the wood, which is why it’s not a great strategy to use for your main design.

It’s also more likely to set your piece on fire, so make sure you’re right next to your machine.

Finally, I run the alignment circles through one more time to be extra sure I got all the way through, because as soon as I move the plywood and check the bottom, I can’t go back.

PowerSpeedPassesThickness
80620.1 in

So, in summary, I hit “print” on the alignment circles three times – one with the rest of the pattern, one with a thickness of 0.24, and one with a thickness of 0.1.

Then I flipped my piece over, and simultaneously flipped the pattern over in the xTool app.

If you forget to flip your pattern, your second cuts won’t line up with your first.

Then I did my best to align my pattern with the printed alignment circles.

I printed the circles, and adjusted the plywood and my pattern until I was happy with how the circles were lining up.

Then I cut the file, and repeated this process on the “shelf” portion of the pattern.

The Backboard

Lastly, I cut the leaf backboard. This is fairly straightforward, cutting on 1/8″ plywood with these settings:

PowerSpeedPasses
10031

Assembling the Jewelry Organizer

I started by spray painting the back piece and the dowel rod, as well as waxing the main organizer pieces. You could forgo this entirely, depending on what look you’re going for!

To assemble the organizer, I glued the shelf to the main piece, holding everything together with clamps.

My plywood was a little warped – you could probably do without the clamps if you buy a good piece.

Then once that was dry, I glued the back (and a little rectangle of cork) on.

While that was drying, I grabbed some burlap, and rolled it up to make the ring holder section.

Originally, I tried messing around with foam, but that was way too complicated, and didn’t look even. Rolling up burlap is definitely the way to go.

It’s glued in place with wood glue.

Finally, I flipped the jewelry organizer over, and added to small pilot holes to the bottom of the shelf. The cup hooks screwed into the holes easily by hand.

And then it was done!

Final Thoughts

I love projects like this – beautiful, but fairly easy to do!

Cutting the 1/2″ plywood did take the xTool a while to do, but if you have the machine setup somewhere it’s easy to watch/check-on, you can do other things while it works.

The actual assembly was actually less than an hour total – so quick! And I think it’d make a great gift. Gorgeous, useful, and handmade!

Grab the SVG here so you can make your own!

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