Hello everyone. First, I chose to use MakerCase website to create my box. I wanted to use 5″ x 5″ x 5″ box size with joint size of 0.98825 inches. I measured the thickness of my 24”x 24” wood as 0.19 inches. Then I measured the kerf after downloading the file from the Canvas and cutting it out. It was 0.0117 inches. Now every measurements were ready so I uploaded the box file to Adobe Illustrator to further proceed with the design and settings for cutting.

I created seperate files in the Illustrator: One for testing and one for cutting all the pieces together. I On the test file I put two sides of the box which I would engrave on. This way I tested the laser cut settings for engraving and if the pieces fit each other.

I used 600 DPi, 60% speed and 60% power for engraving and 5% speed and 100% power for vector cutting. I was happy with the outcome of engraving however even though the pieces fit into each other the problem was using a very slow speed for vector cutting which caused sides to burn a lot. Then I increased the speed to %20 and this time laser didn’t cut some vector all the way through the wood so I couldn’t remove them from the wood. On my third try, I used 17% for the speed and this time everything worked perfectly and the pieces fit each other too.

Final version of my box:

 

Before clean-up:

After clean-up:

Estimated Cost Analysis:

• Cost of wood (8$ per 2’x2′ plywood) = 16$ since I had to use two pieces of sheet.
• Cost of labor (10$/hour) = 25$
• Cost of the machine (0.5/piece) = 11*0.5= 5.5$
• Total: 46.5$