I elected to do the beginner version of this project. I had been around people using the laser cutter often in the past, but I had never operated it independently before, and I was definitely not confident in my skills.

I created a pdf file of the box faces using makeabox.io, and 6in x 6in x 6in dimensions.

I used the text tool in AI to include my name and class information one one face, and I found an SVG image of a rose online, which I threw on the face opposite from my name.

An issue arose here wherein I stopped by the laser cutter room several times on Thursday evening and throughout Friday, but it was always occupied. I never had time to wait for those ahead of me in line to finish their cuts, due to the nature of my schedule. In order to address this, I went online and reserved the laser cutter room under my name for Sunday afternoon. That’s when I went in and created this:

I thought it looked nice, but the issue was the the kerf was incorrect, and the pieces weren’t fitted closely enough to stay together.

I went back to makeabox.io and created a file for a 4in by 4in by 4in box with a slightly different kerf. This was the result:

However, the kerf here was wrong too, and this box wouldn’t stay together any better than the first iteration.

At this point, it was Sunday evening and there were too many people ahead of me in line to use the laser cutter for me to consider trying again. So, I added some tape to the sides of both iterations to keep them from completely falling apart, and took a dejected walk back to Lovett in defeat. Had I made more time for myself to work on this, I would have loved to sit in the laser cutter room and make a bunch of tiny boxes with different kerf values in order to select the best one. Alas, the limited amount of time I tried to make for this project was in vain 80% of the time as others were always using the machine.

Always the optimist, I’ve decided to focus on what I learned from this homework, as opposed to focusing on the fact that my end product didn’t turn out successful.

What I learned:
1. If I want to use a tool with limited spots, I need to reserve it early and ahead of time. In a more general sense, I need to add efficacy to my efforts to do things ahead of time.
2. If I don’t understand part of a project and its impact on my product (like here for kerf) I definitely need to start asking about it earlier than Sunday evening.
3. laser-cut wood smell stays on my hands for DAYS

Cost Analysis:
Hypothetically I would have said that a plank of wood similar in size to the one I used can be found at Home Depot for $5.62, and the total time I spent working on AI files and laser cutting was about 2.5 hours (not including the time I spent waiting to use the laser cutter or the times I walked to the OEDK only to be turned away by people already using the machine), at a wage of $10 an hour, these two boxes combined would have cost $30.62. However, since they are literally held in place with tape, I’d happily give them away for free – $0.