The laser cutter put up a good fight, but eventually I managed to make a box! For my first attempt, I used makeabox.io to construct the faces of my box and Adobe Illustrator to send the file to the laser cutter. The box was 5.8″x5.8″x5.8″ with a thickness of 0.2″ (measured with calipers). Using a stroke of 0.001″ for the vectors and fill for the engraving, I wanted cut out the box pieces and engrave the svg images and text. I fought with AI and the laser cutter for hours when it would not do both vector and engraving in one run. I could not solve this issue. Something was wrong with the svg Rice logo I used, so I chose a different one. Eventually I was able to cut and engrave the pieces. When I went to assemble the box, to my surprise, it simply did not fit. Based on the teaching team’s suggestion, I decided to use makercase.com to construct my box.

I eventually did successfully produce a box using makercase. After the first box, I decided to make it smaller, with dimensions 3.8″x3.8″x3.8″ and a thickness of 0.2″. The first 2 attempts using this were not successful because the vectors did not cut all the way through the wood. The vector settings used during these attempts are as follows:

Speed 18,21

Power 100

Frequency 10

After further adjustment of the speed, my 3rd attempt successfully cut through the wood with these vector settings:

Speed 15

Power 100

Frequency 10

In all attempts, I used the same successfully engraving settings:

Resolution 500

Speed 100

Power 50

Finally, I assembled the final box. Though the pieces fit well, they were slightly loose. I used a tiny amount of super glue to reinforce the corners. This was definitely a learning experience, but I now feel much more confident using the laser cutter.

Cost: I used a full sheet of 0.2″ thick plywood and spent around 6 hours making this box. At $3.50 for a sheet of plywood and $15/hr in labor costs, the total cost estimate of my box is $93.50.