For this week’s assignment, students were to make a box using the laser cutter and adobe illustrator which would show their respective college logo and information about themselves. This was the beginner assignment and although I wanted to do the intermediate assignment which was to create an open, sectioned box to store past projects, issues with Adobe Illustrator and personal time constraints pushed me to settle.

To start the assignment, I had to first measure the kerf of the old laser cuter. This was done by cutting a 2”x 1” plank of plywood and measuring the difference in the intended and actual width of the plank. The actual width ended being 1.98” and by dividing the difference by 2, which are the number of sides in which the width material was cut, the kerf was found to be .01”.

After getting a kerf value, I was ready to input my desired dimensions into MakeABox. The dimensions values which I input were those of the interior dimension, meaning that if I wanted a box of a certain size, I would have to subtract twice the thickness of the wood from the width, length, and depth inputs to get the right box. I wanted to make a 5′ x 5’x 5′ box so after measuring the plywood thickness to be .195”, the dimensions I input into makeabox were 4.61 ”x 4.61” x 4.61” and the PDF of the box file was made.

 

Using the PDF, I was able to transfer the drawing into Adobe Illustrator. The only additions made to the file before cutting was to add the logo of Brown College on one side of the box along with my name and other tidbits on another side. After that, the file was ready to go and it could be printed.

Looking at the correct settings for a cut of plywood at the given thickness of the wood, I was able to choose the correct speed, frequency, and power for the laser cutter. This was also done for the etching to the correct settings for that portion of the cut as well.

 

 

 

 

 

The print then finished after about 20 minutes and I was able to assemble the box well. 

Cost analysis

Material Cost: 

• Plywood: Thickness was closer to 1/4” than 1/8”. Two pieces total were used due to an error in the first cut ; Boards of plywood were about 48” x 24”
  • Price = 2 * (48” x 24”) * ($14.41 / (1152 in^2) = $28.82

 

• Labor/Time Cost: A total of 3 hours was spent on the project
  • Cost: 3 hr * ($10/hr) = 30$

The total cost is $28.82 + $30 = $58.82