To begin this project, I first gathered the large wood sheet and measured the width of it, measuring about 1/8 inches. This would be inputted as the custom width measurement for the box file from en.makercase.com. This file and all images would be used in Adobe Illustrator to print out using the Epilog Engraver laser cutter. For cuts, no fill and a line width of 0.001 inches was used. For engravements, a black fill and a line width of 0.001 inches was used.

Finding the Perfect Kerf

Before printing the box file from en.makercase.com, I had to determine a suitable kerf value to create a tight junction between the box pieces. Following the advice from Rachel during my training session, it would be wood-efficient to print out only the edges of the wood pieces with varying kerf values to determine the best fit. Unbeknownst to her, my misunderstanding of how en.makercase.com adjusted for kerf, I spent a lot of wood testing kerf values (at least I tested only small snippets and not full squares). After many trials testing kerf values ranging from 0 to 0.005 inches, I thought that a kerf value of 0.0045 produced the tightest fit that wasn’t too difficult to push together. From this, I used a box file with a value of 0.0045 as kerf for the following boxes.

Testing a Corner

With the new downloaded box file with a 0.0045 kerf, I first wanted to determine if a corner of the box would fit. I adjusted the box file to only print out three pieces that would fit into a corner. These were cut at 18 speed, 100% power, and 10 Hz frequency.

First Test Box

Using the gathered knowledge, I printed the first full box with one side with text information about the me and the class and a second with a crest. Being a graduate student with no residential crest, I first tried to use the owl logo provided on Canvas, but after 15 minutes of trying to get it to print as a full, reasonable engravement, I gave up. Choosing the next closest residential college file to the owl logo, I landed on the McMurtry logo. This file was much simpler and easier to adjust to engrave on the box. I printed the remaining pieces, the bottom piece with the text information and the top piece with the crest. I didn’t like the way this box came out, with the text logo not coming out centered or at a legible font size.

Making Final Boxes

Learning from the test box, I wanted to print out another box with a larger font size and with some personality. Trying to think of something to fill up the other four sides of the box, I thought printing out the four different swimming strokes would be a great addition. Using images from the nounproject.com, I planned to engrave the strokes in the remaining four sides of the box. To adjust the center of the engravements, I recorded the pixel dimensions that marked the center of the box cuts and the matched it with the center of the image. This made the engravements look much neater when printed.

To also reduce the laser burns on the edges of the box, I used masking tape on the cut edges.

When printed, because of the masking tape, the engravements left stark differences in the color between the edges of the box and the engravements, which I didn’t prefer the look of. So, I ended up printing another box without the masking tape and with adjusted speed to lessen the look of laser burns.

Finished Products + Reflection

When put together, the boxes had a tight fit and the engravements looked very neat. I am really happy with how these boxes came out, especially the last one which was placed in the OEDK as a submission.

In the future when using the laser cutter, I would improve upon:

• Spacing better on the material sheet when cutting
• Use less masking tape to reduce drastic changes in color between engravement and edges

Cost Estimate

Materials:

3 square feet of plywood – $3

Masking tape – negligible

Time:

3.5 hours*($10 – price based on minimum wage in Texas and cost of operating tools and machinery used)

Total Cost: ~$38