This week’s assignment was to make a box yet again, this time, however, with laser cutting. This week’s task highlighted the importance of cautionary planning and efficiency in regards to time.
This week’s box is quite different from the box for HW 2 because this one had to have been segmented into smaller compartments and as mentioned before laser cut. In order to begin this box we had to use the adobe illustrator skills we learned last week and apply it to our box, given the dimensions for each compartment. One other big tool that we utilized this week was the makeabox website which when you input dimensions for a box it will give you an illustrator file of the lateral ,base, and top sides to laser cut and snap fit your box.
Therefore, I began with rearranging the compartments of my box and with an addition of about 1.5 in. in some of those compartments I was able to come up with a box having a total dimension of 13″ X 6.5″ to be ready to input into the makeabox website. One other important dimension when it comes to getting your box to snap fit on the makeabox website was the kerf setting. Me and a colleague were able to experiment with
Figure 2: Kerf testing
some kerfs ranging from 0.007″ to 0.011″ and finally arriving at 0.011 as our best fit.
Figure 1: Using makeabox
After getting a file from make a box I arranged the necessary sides and made segments for my box by copying parts from the sides themselves, to get a final piece ready for laser cutting and engraving.
Figure 3: Laser-cut ready piece
For laser cutting, I covered the piece of wood with tape to keep the surface from being burned and remain clean. Then removed the tape for engraving the labels for my compartments because engraving with tape can burn the wood due to the amount of detail in engraving.
Figure 4: Cut piece ready to engrave
After removing the tape and the pieces, I began to put everything together. The kerf and the snap fit seemed to be working as tested, however when I was putting some of the segments together I noticed that I was approximately 0.1 in. longer than it should be which messed with the other segments. I was able to solve this issue by re cutting the over extending pieces.
Figure 6: Piece extending over perforations on base
However, after getting through these menial trials I was able to put together my box for a finished product! The snap fit on all connections seem to have been ideal however for some of them the warped wood I used caused some to not fit as perfectly. I am still very proud of the finished product because I kind of took a risk with the intermediate, compartmentalized box and seeing it finished is great.
Figure 7: Finished Product!
Lessons Learned
Some lessons I have learned this week was the importance of carefully planning cuts. The amount of detail that went into making the different sides and segments was a bit overwhelming which I think allowed for some aligning errors that are seen in Figure 6. This can be avoided through making a cut using cardboard to see every piece fits perfectly. Another lesson is the importance of taking steps (no matter how small) to be more efficient with my time. I spent over 8 hrs. on this assignment which could have been avoided if I made sure that I got all over extending pieces instead of adjusting, and cutting pieces one by one, or joining the figures I got from the makeabox file so the path the laser cutter takes is an efficient one to minimize the amount of time it takes to cut a piece.
Cost Analysis
- 1/4″ Plywood: 2′ x 4′- $16.00 Home Depot, Used 40″x 28″ ~ $13
- Floor Marking Tape: 2″x 36yds. -$4.50 ULine, Used 2″260″ ~$0.9
- Labor: $20/hr, 8 hr. = $160
Total: ~$164
This cost analysis makes sense as long as you don’t factor in buying the laser cutter, because most of the money spent should be on labor since the intricate detail necessary for a task like this can be grueling.
