This week’s project was to laser cut a 4”x4”x4” hollow wooden box without any glue. To do this, I used an online box generator (makeabox.io) to create my box file. I set the dimensions to 3.785” for width, length, and height, and make my thickness .125”.

I also made the kerf .012” and the finger width 0.5”.

I then opened this file in Adobe Illustrator and then added a small text box that included my name, the date, the class, and the semester – Rachel Lee, ENGI 210, F 2021, 11/21/2021.

I also added the Rice University academic seal (I chose not to go with the McMurtry logo because I’ve never been too fond of it.)

I then moved to the Epilog Fusion Pro Laser Cutter and adjusted the settings to the look I desired.

For engraving I switched to 100% speed, 60% power. 

For cutting I switched to 100% power, 5% speed, and 10% frequency.

After cutting, I found that I had not measured the thickness of the wood correctly so the edges of the box were not seamless. Additionally, I found that the laser was cutting through the wood easily and left a darker edge than I would have liked. Finally, I noticed that the kerf was not allowing for a press-fit so I knew that I would have to adjust these settings.

I tried cutting a 1”x1” square and measured the final size and found that there was 0.0134” difference. I divided this number by two to re-adjust the kerf setting to .0067”.

I then re-measured the thickness (.192) of my wood and re-created my file, this time to 3.808”x3.808”x3.808”, .192” thickness, 0.5” tab width, and a .0067” kerf.

I kept my engraving settings because I really liked how it turned out, and changed the cutting settings to 100%, 15% speed, and 10% frequency.

This time, the box came out better in that the edges were seamless thanks to the change in dimensions/thickness. However, I was disappointed to find that the change in kerf only slightly helped the press-fit issue. 

At this point, I decided to keep my box as it was, as I really liked the color of the edges and the engraving. I ended up taping the insides to keep the box from falling apart.

Overall, this was a nice project to go over the laser cutting process and will definitely help me for the final project.

Cost Analysis:

1 sheet of plywood – ~$15 from home depot

Labor Cost – 3 hours at $10 = $30

Total: ~$45