I gathered the materials to start this project, including a 24”x24” piece of plywood with 0.2” thickness, blue tape, and an Adobe Illustrator subscription.

Next using https://en.makercase.com I designed my box. I went for a 4.5”x4.5”x4.5” with 0.2” wood thickness (based on my caliper measurement). I used finger joints of size ~0.77 inches, and a kerf of 0.008 inches – based on a kerf box made and shared by Alex (example of kerf box shown below). I downloaded each side of the cube individually and then pasted it into an Adobe Illustrator template set to the size of the cutting area on the epilog laser fusion M2 (40” x 28”). Upon pasting, I had to change the stroke size on each face to 0.072 pt (with no fill) in order to make a proper vector cut. Using the text feature, I customized the top face with my name, class, semester, and date. On the bottom face, I put the Rice University seal, a design I prefer to the GSA logo. In order to ensure that my text and seal were engraved and not cut, I made sure both had no strokes and black fill.

I worked with Juliana to prepare the laser cutter, and we first properly calibrated the laser height and then checked our laser cut settings (4s,100p,10f) by cutting out a small practice square. I put tape over the area where I would be cutting to avoid any burn marks. This added thickness to the wood but our laser settings were still sufficient to cut through the wood. I set the engraving settings based on the suggested settings on the wall for engraving clip art and text.

At this point, I was ready to cut. I sent the project to the laser cutter weighed down my plywood, and after a dry run, sent it for cutting. After cutting, I removed the tape, this was tedious on the Rice seal but gave it a nice look. I then assembled my box by press-fitting the pieces together. They were a little resistant to join together at first but with some effort, they fit together in a very well-sealed fit.

I then cleaned up all the scrap tape, placed the extra plywood back in the designated stack on the class table, put away any materials I used, logged off the computer, and turned off the laser cutter and exhaust.

Here is my price breakdown:

Cost Type	Cost	Price	Source	Quantity	Total
Materials	24”x24” Plywood	$169.99/12 sheets	Amazon.com	1/12	$14.17
	Blue tape	$6.19/roll (60 yards)	Homedepot.com	1/10	$0.62
	Adobe Illustrator License	$263.88/year	Adobe.com	1/365	$0.72
Labor	Laser cutter Operator	$19.25/hour	Ziprecruiter.com	1	$19.25
	Prototyping Engineer (You!)	$35/hour	Red Fox Innovations	1/2	$17.50
Overhead	Facility Cost (Machine Time)	$1.25/hour	Sawmillcreek.org	2	$2.50
	Quality Control	$13/hour	Zippia.com	1/6	$2.17
Design	Engineering and Development	$35/hour	Red Fox Innovations	1/6	$5.83
Misc.	Waste and Scrap	$13.50/hour	Ziprecruiter.com	1/6	$2.25
Total					$65.01