For this week’s assignment I was given a sheet of plywood and tasked with using the CO2 laser cutter to create a press-fit box. When choosing my sheet of plywood from the pile I noticed that several sheets were warped in several places, so I looked for flat sheets but ended up with a relatively flat sheet with some warped areas. Then I utilized Adobe Illustrator to create a small 1 in x 1in box, and then created a test cut using the laser cutter to make sure my settings were at an appropriate level. The laser cutter that I chose to accomplish this project was the Epilog Fusion M2 – 40 x 28″. Fortunately, my test cut was successful and my settings were valid for the sheet I chose. My vector cut settings were:

Frequency: 10

Speed: 5

Power: 100

Afterwards, I proceeded to determine the kerf of the laser, to accomplish this I downloaded the provided Kerf box file and cut it out using the laser cutter. After the kerf box was cut out, I pushed all the small rectangles to one side and measured the remaining empty space with a digital caliper. The measurement of the gap divided by 10 provided me with the average kerf of the laser with the settings I was using. The kerf that I ended up with was 0.00725 in. 

This is an image of the laser cutter cutting out the kerf box.

The caliper measurement of the gap left in the kerf box.

Then using https://en.makercase.com/#/basicbox, I generated a vector file for my press fit box. I imputed the following values into makercase. 

This is an image of the values that I had inputted into makercase to generate a vector file.

The width, height, and depth are set at 4in. Material thickness is set at 0.19in. Finger size is set to 0.767.

Next I imported the vector file into adobe illustrator and erased the informational text on each box face and added in some text and the GSA crest to be rastered onto the box face. To add some personalization I also added in a turtle to be rastered on 2 other faces and a wolf to be rastered in on another face. 

This is an image of my completed vector file that I printed on the laser cutter. 

Before cutting out my design to reduce potential burn marks on the plywood I applied masking tape onto the plywood.

 

 

This might be slightly hard to view but these are images of the laser cutter cutting out my file.

Then after running the laser cutter I noticed that all the pieces came out fine however I had forgotten to raster the text and instead left it as a vector, so the text was cut out instead of being rastered. Therefore I changed the text from a vector to a raster and recut the face with the text. After which I used a rubber mallet to help press fit all the faces together. Below is an image of my final piece.  

 

Overall I am really happy with how the final product turned out, however, next time I would have liked to have had more tabs on each face compared to the 2-3 tabs that I ended up with. Also I have to be more careful when utilizing the rubber mallet to press fit the pieces as I almost broke a tab by mishammering my contact point. The box is tightly fitted together and none of the pieces are removable by hand. Below is a cost breakdown of this project.

Cost Type	Cost	Price	Source	Quantity	Total
Materials	1/4 in. x 2 ft. x 2 ft. Sanded Plywood Project Panel	$7.28	https://www.homedepot.com/	1	$7.28
	ScotchBlue 1.41 in. x 60 yds. Original Multi-Surface Painter’s Tape	$6.98	https://www.homedepot.com/	1	$6.98
	PITTSBURGH 1 lb. Rubber Mallet	$2.99	https://www.harborfreight.com/	1	$2.99
	Digital Caliper, Sangabery 0-6 inches Caliper with Large LCD Screen	$7.99	https://www.amazon.com/	1	$7.99
Labor	Prototyping Engineer (You!)	$36.48/hr	https://www.ziprecruiter.com/	4/hr	$145.92
Overhead	Facility Cost (Machine Time – Laser Cutter)	$50/month	https://apps.txrxlabs.org/join-us/	1	$50.00
	Software Cost (Adobe Illustrator)	$19.99/month (1st year student price)	https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud	1	$19.99
Design	Engineering and Development	$60.70/hr	https://www.talent.com/	1	$60.70

The total cost according to the cost breakdown is $301.85. A majority of the cost is due to labor and design costs. Overall I think I would be able to reduce the cost by a third the next time I complete this project since I have a better understanding of how to operate a laser cutter and I know exactly how to set up my files to print on a laser cutter.  Below is a picture of my workspace after I was done: