glyph posted:

Not exactly the same thing, but at work we've discovered a 5/16" r8 collet fits a sharpie drat well. We'll use the mill from time to time as a plotter to check dimensions. Maybe you can use the laser gantry in the same way?

Assuming you have a cnc laser cutter...

Similarly, an overhead projector (good luck finding one of those) with a 8.5x11 printout projected on something you can trace the lines could work for a cardboard aided design mockup.

E: Like so. Plotting out 1/4 of the load area of our z pinch machine and then the piece and three others test fit on the load region. I cut them out with a utility knife. These were optical breadboards once all was said and done.