For this assignment I made a 4″ finger joint box using a laser cutter. To get the base file I used en.makercase.com. The width of my material was 0.2″, and the finger size was 0.75″. I determined the kerf to be .01″ by cutting out a row of 10 rectangles and measuring the missing material. For the designs engraved on the box, I decided to use images from one of my favorite games, Library of Ruina.
The images initially had a black background, so I tested engraving the whole side of the box. However, there was not enough contrast for the darker images to appear. I also tried greyscale, but this messed with the image in someway that made the laser not engrave it at all. Eventually I settled on inverting the image colors, which worked very well, and also cut the potential printing time down by a third. I found out later that I could have made the background transparent, but I think because most of the images had bright outlines, inverting was better overall as it made them darker. This is the final Illustrator file I printed.
After testing with a small 1″ square, I engraved with 50 power and 60 speed, and cut the box with 100 power and 15 speed. Here is my final product.
Overall I think this went very well. Except for one, the images came out clearly. The base images had glow on them which translated to blurring when laser cut. However, there was still enough contrast for this to be minimal, with one exception as shown below. I also think the finger joints were a bit too tight, so a kerf of .009 or .0095 would have worked better, but it was still able to be assembled.
Files:
Cost Estimate:
Materials:
1/4″ x 2′ x 2′ plywood: $7.28
Labor: 4 hours – $18 * 4 = $72
Machine Time:
Laser Cutter: 40 minutes – $.07
Total: $79.39
