LASERS!

I have used the laser cutter box for many projects but never had I struggled as I did this time. The new Epilog cutter was very “temperamental” as the sign stated on top of the machine. The inspiration for this project was the quirky car built by Volkswagen called the Volkswagen Golf Harlequin (pictured Below). For context on the car, this paint job is how it came from the factory. 

Initially, I planned to make a tray-style box with dividers and all, but the laser cutters did not agree with me. After attempting and failing to cut the box on the new epilog pro machine, I turned to the old epilog. I set my wood down and started with the engravings first. One of my name, class, and date, and the other an outline of my car. After this, I started the vector cut around the sides of the box to cut them out. On the first try, I had my settings at 10 speed, 100 power and there was no piercing. I then brought it down to about 5 speed and tried again. No piercings either. I passed over several times with a speed of 3 and a power of 100 and there were some spots of pierced wood. I lastly went over with a sluggish speed of 1 and laid the painters’ tape on it beforehand so it would not burn the wood too deeply. After the 18-minute cut had finished I was shocked to see some pieces still headstrong and attached to the wood. I had to hammer them out but lifted a bit of the back layer in the process. I wanted to try something different with these pieces instead of letting them go to waste. As a result, I decided to make a simple tray box with the aesthetic of the aforementioned car by the mix and match colors, (and also to mask my mistakes). Determined to not let the pieces of wood I had cut with the laser cutter go to waste, I went to town to post-process them completely. I sanded down all the woods with the belt sander and detailed it with 120 grit sandpaper. Then I spray painted (and clear coated) them different colors before finally gluing and assembling the box.

Assembling the box was easy as the edges helped with the alignment and made the fit tight.

I used wood glue and clamps to seal the pieces together.

From the many colors, I think it makes the box pop!

The colors reminded me of a Lego brick so I took some shots with my only set of Legos

Thanks for reading! Next time I would have tried to dial in the settings more and fix the machine to cut the pieces without burning and not piercing at the same time.

Overall costs of box:

Labor: 8 hours @ $10/hour = $80

Machine time: Epilog laser cutter (2 hours) = $40
Belt sander (30 min) = $10

Materials:

• 1/4″ Birch Plywood = $5 @OEDK
• 5 cans of spray paint, (Red, Yellow, Green, Purple, Blue) = $4×5 = $20
• Clear protective enamel = $5

Total cost = $80+$50+$30 = $160