This week I created a box!

To start, I measured the thickness of my wood in order to insure the tangs were the right size. The thickness of my wood was 0.185 inches.

Next, I needed to find the kerf. To do this I worked with Brad to cut out a kerf box. We found that with a speed of 6, power of 100, and a frequency of 10, we had a kerf of 0.011 as shown below.

Now that I had all the measurements, I used MakerCase to generate the .ai vector file.

After importing my box into illustrator, I added my name as well as the Brown College crest. My design is shown below.

Finally I was ready to cut. I used the Epilog Fusion Pro as the M2 was broken with a faulty exhaust.

After having my cut pieces, I was then ready to assemble my box. My final box can be shown below.

After assembling my box, I made sure to clean up the table. The clean table can be seen here.

Some issues I ran into was the availability of the laser cutter. I tried my best to reserve a time but when I got there a couple minutes before my reservation someone was actively cutting with it so I would have to cancel my reservation or it would turn off in the middle of their cut and I felt bad doing that. Second, the speed I set the vector cuts to was too slow which resulted in a bit of charing. I tried to wipe it off with a paper towel but ended up just smudging it even more.

Cost Analysis: 

Wood: I used ~4 ft^2 of wood at $7.28 for a 2×2 piece of wood at Home Depot : $7.28

Manual Labor: 1 hour at $15 an hour: $15

Laser Cutter Operation: ~$12.73 per hour for 1/2 an hour: $6.37

Total: 28.65