For this week, we are assigned to laser cut and assemble a 4″x4″ box.

Before I laser-cut, I first had to measure the kerf of the laser cutter so I drew and cut 14 sticks inside a rectangle. I moved the sticks to one side and measured the gap to be 0.09″, giving a kerf of approx 0.006″. I then measured the thickness of the wood to be 0.205″.

Because makeabox.io uses the receives the inner dimension of the box as the input, the inside dimension would be 4″-2*0.0205″ or 3.59″. I entered all these measurements and dimensions into makeabox.io and downloaded the pdf file it generated for me.

I opened the file using Adobe Illustrator and wrote my name and class info on one of the sides and put a picture of the McMurtry crest on the opposite side. I adjusted the line stroke to 0.001″, the thickness used for vector cuts, and then printed the file using the laser printer using the following settings:

raster: 100% speed, 65% power

vector: 3% speed, 100% power.

Failures: The first time I printed the box, it didn’t fit together because I accidentally input the kerf to be 0.06″ instead of the actual 0.006″.

Cost: The cost of operating the laser cutter is approximately $20 per hour. Including the failed cut, it took me approx 30 minutes total, which equates to a cost of $10. The cost of the plywood used is $5. The labor cost is $20, assuming $10/hour. Therefore the total cost for this project is $35.