For my latest project my goal was to create a wooden box using my recently trained laser cutting skills that would have the ability to be joined together using the press fit method. My first step was to create the design of my box (version 1.0 went completely bad). For the measurements of my closed box I wanted it to be 5×5 and wanted it to have a “finger size” of 0.165 because the way it looked on the website I used to get my box template (en.makercase.com) looked good and the connections looked correct. To make sure I cut my box out correctly I had to measure the kerf and to do that I had to laser cut a rectangle out of plywood with lines in it. I used a piece of scrap wood found in the laser cutting machine lab.  

Additionally, I originally thought I measured the scrap wood at 0.2825in thick, but I realized with “box 2.0” that I measured wrong. The measurement should’ve been 0.186in thick. This error combined with an error of the finger size based on the boxes measurements made it so that once the template was generated the tabs on the box did not line up well as one tab size was either smaller/larger than the other one instead of fitting well together. 

Template of Box 1.0 with Incorrect Measurements and lineup

Then I redid my entire template and added my designs to it on Adobe Illustrator to get it ready for cutting. To cut out my pieces I used the settings of power at 100, frequency at 10, and speed at 13. I originally decided to use the kerf of speed 13 because it was very low at 0.00445 inches and I thought this would work with the press fit but when I laser cut out two practice pieces on some scrap wood only one of them came out easily and the other had to be punched out which took way too much work and damaged my wooden piece. So, I remember that when I did a kerf box with speed 12, the kerf was 0.00835 inches and there was enough space for my rectangular pieces to move around so I assumed the same would be for the box pieces.

Next, I used my plywood and started laser cutting my design out as shown in the image below.

As you can see in my design I decided to have an image on four sides of Winnie the Pooh characters. The reason for this is because we were told to add our college crest to one of the sides, and because our college mascot at Wiess is a warpig and pigs are my favorite animals, I decided to incorporate something pig related on each side although I didn’t want a war pig. One of my favorite childhood shows is Winnie the Pooh and because their main character piglet is a pig I wanted him to show up on each side, but I also wanted the other characters there too. So, ¾ sides with piglet include one main character posing with him. 

After printing, the pieces all came out great and were much easier to get out! Now it was time to press the pieces together (was a bit rough to do at first but it became easier once I figured out how to do it efficiently.

Below is an image of my finished box:

Here is my clean workspace:

Cost analysis:

3/16″ x 2′ x 4′ plywood = $12.89 at Home Depot

Facility cost:

Laser machine operator: Average hourly wage in Texas is $16.69, so for three hours of work the total salary would be $50.07

Epilog Fusion M2 operating cost: About $12.73 for one hour of laser cutting (according to Alpha Laser)

Approximate Total: $75.69