For the laser cutting assignment, I made a 5.5” X 5.5” X 7.5” box out of 1/4 ” wood as shown in Figure 1 from an online box generator Make A Box.
Figure 1. Preview of Laser-Cut Box
This is actually the second box I made. The first box was a little smaller and did not have any extra decorations. However, it did not hold together because I did not enter the correct thickness of the wood into the box generator. Therefore, the teeth would only go into each other halfway and the box was not stable.
For my final box, I measured the thickness of the wood with a caliper and entered the correct dimensions. The other settings I used were 0.01’’ kerf, 0.125’’ margin, 0.1’’ padding, and 0.001’’ stroke. I also added a flower image I downloaded from the Noun Project to the top of the box. This was etched into the wood using the laser cutter. The laser cutting settings I used were 5 speed, 100 power, and 10 frequency for cutting and 50 power, 50 speed for etching.
After the laser cutter was finished, the pieces came out of the bulk material very easily. I first assembled two sides and the base (Figure 2). The pieces fit into each other snugly and are stable after they are fully inserted. There is no excess room between the teeth and were not too hard to assemble. Next, I added the remaining two sides and the top of the box. The top piece was the hardest to attach because it required lining up with all the other sides. I got the top mostly into its place just with my hands but needed to use a clamp to slide it in all the way.
Figure 2. Back View of Partially-Assembled Box
After the box was fully assembled, it was very sturdy, was not bent or warped, and looked like a finished product (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Finished Laser-Cut Box
It took me 2 hours to make this box. Working at $12 per hour, labor costs are $24. A board of plywood costs $10. I used half a board so material costs are $5. Adobe Illustrator costs $19.99 a month. If drawing on Adobe Illustrator was a part of my job and I worked on it for 10 hours a week, 4 weeks a month (40 hours), using it for 1 hour to create the file would cost $00.50. To estimate machine cost, I used rates from TXRX lab in Houston. Membership to the machines is $50 per month. I can estimate that I would use the machine 10 hours a month, each hour would cost $5. It took me an hour to use the laser cutter, so the machine cost would be $5. Thus the total cost is $24 + $5 + $5.50 = $34.50.
