Hi everyone!!
This is my blog post for the laser cutting homework! I really enjoyed this homework more than the first two, because I feel like this is a technique more biomedical related than the sewing and the wood working. I booked the laser cutting machine on Wednesday 25, from 5:45 PM to 7:45 PM, but eventually ended up using it until 9 PM… It was honestly a little harder than expected due to Adobe Illustrator lagging and the LaserPro software having to be restarted because it was not working. Thankfully, Madison and other two TAs helped me with that issue because I was honestly not having it. I spent a total of 4 hours in the OEDK for this project and I love how it turned out! Now I can confidently say I know how to plan, set and complete any basic design I need in laser cutting machines.
THE PROCESS
I started by taking a digital caliper and measuring the thickness of my wood piece/tab, which was 0.183inches (4.67mm). After doing so, I used the 2D drawing generated by en.makercase.com to plan my box design. I then logged into Canvas to download the Kerf.ai file and uploaded it into Adobe Illustrator to determine the proper kerf of my box. I modified all the necessary properties to make the laser machine cut and not engrave the figure. I checked the laser cutting camera, placed my wood with the weights on it so it was uniformly held, and proceeded to cut. When done, I removed the shape from the machine and pushed each little rectangle against each other, creating a small gap between the last rectangle and the border of the figure. I then used the digital caliper to measure the gap, which was 0.1650 inches. I consequently divided this value by 10 to get my average kerf of 0.0165 inches, and input it in the online makercase website. After doing so, I downloaded the SVG file from the website and converted it to PDF for best results. Thus, I uploaded the PDF file on Adobe Illustrator and combined all the separate 6 boxes into shapes, rather than lines, for cutting efficiency purposes.
Additionally, I added my name, class, semester, and date on one specific side of the box, and my college (Graduate Student Association) on another side. On the remaining 4 sides of the box I simply added a smiley face “:)” to make it more fun and minimalistic. Finally, I sent the file to print on the laser cutting machine with the following settings:
- Speed: 12%
- Power: 100%
- Frequency: 10%
The total printing and engraving process took approximately 11-12 minutes.
Furthermore, I took the 6 cut pieces out and PANICKED!!! because I realized the sides would not exactly “snap-fit” together. I asked for some help from the TA who was currently in the OEDK at that time and he gave me the advice of using sandpaper to let the sides fit perfectly with each other. So, very tired, I proceeded to the sanding table station and I used a 200-grit sandpaper to smooth every single corner of my sides. After doing so, all my sides were able to fit and snap-fit together properly and I finally got my beautiful box!!
THE RESULTS
VIDEO –> IMG_1652
MY CLEAN SPACE
COST ANALYSIS
| Cost Type | Cost | Price | Source | Quantity | Total |
| Materials | Plywood board | $23.97 (4ftx8ft sheet) | Home Depot | 1 sheet | $23.97 |
| Sand Paper (120-grit) | $5.49 per pack | Home Depot | 1 pack | $5.49 | |
| Labor | Woodworking Operator | $20/hour | Payscale.com | 2 hours | $40.00 |
| Prototyping Engineer (You!) | $30/hour | Glassdoor.com | 4 hours | $120.00 | |
| Overhead | Facility Cost (Machine Time) | $15/hour | Trotec Laser rental | 1 hour | $15.00 |
| Quality Control | $25/hour | Payscale.com | 1 hour | $25.00 | |
| Design | Engineering and Development | $35/hour | Glassdoor.com | 3 hours | $105.00 |
| Iterations | $10/hour | Glassdoor.com | 2 hours | $20.00 | |
| Misc. | Waste and Scrap | $10.00 | Estimate | N/A | $10.00 |
| GRAND TOTAL | $364.46 | ||||
