For our fourth project, we were tasked with making yet another box! This time, we had to use the laser cutter to create a box to hold all our products made during ENGI 210. I’ve cut quite a few boxes before in my time at the OEDK, but all of them were simply generated through Make-A-Box, and did not require much dimensioning/modification aside from minor additions in Illustrators (circles for holes, images for etching, etc.). This time, I wanted to challenge myself to design a box nearly from scratch: finger joints, holes, and everything.

I still wasn’t going to hand-draw every finger joint myself, so I used Make-A-Box to generate a plan for the outer walls of the box.

As part of the intermediate assignment, I had to create a box with many internal compartments with specified minimum dimensions. On Illustrator, I created rectangles representing each compartment and played around with arranging them. After organizing the compartments so that the entire figure roughly formed a rectangle, I scaled the bottom compartments (without adding more than 0.5” in length to each) so that all the outer wall of the entire box was a regular rectangle.

 

With Make-A-Box, I generated a box with ID 11.5” (length) x 7.5” (width) x 3” (height). I used 0.007 Kerf for a snap fit. Though I would be cutting with 1/4” plywood, I realized that most of the OEDK plywood was actually ~0.2” thick after measuring several pieces with a caliper, and so adjusted the thickness in Make-A-Box accordingly.

I really did not want to camp out in the laser cutter room for 12+ hours after failing my cut an endless number of times, so I took my planning very seriously. I determined the internal dimensions for each of my internal boxes, accounting for the thickness of the separation walls. To make the internal walls, I copied relevant pieces from the main outer box for modification. I exported my Illustrator file into Solidworks (Illustrator’s measuring features suck, Smart Dimensions 4life). Now, the real fun can begin…

Let me spare you the details: there were lots of measuring, dimensioning, guidelines being dragged around, my screen being bombarded by millions of relation symbols popping up all over the place… At one point, Solidworks froze on me and I thought I’d lost all my work. I have no idea how long it took me to create the complete box sketch. I first modified the pieces to have the right lengths and number of finger joints. Then, I added 2” wide finger joint holes on all the necessary pieces.

^ A compilation image of my woes. After I stayed up until 2 AM on Friday dragging rectangles around, I swear I had a dream about finger joints that night. I have to say, as tedious as it was in Solidworks, without all the automatically generated guides and handy sketch tools like linear sketch pattern, it would’ve been a nightmare. Solidworks is just so user friendly!

At last, I was ready to cut. I exported my Solidworks file into Illustrator, and performed a test cut using cardboard. The test cut caught several of my mistakes (mismatched holes on some of the sides, way too deep lap joints on the 4 side connection). Editing the file was much faster than making it from scratch. Once I triple-checked the sketch, I decided I was ready to cut for real.

I added labels for the objects and my name. I gave the plywood some light sanding with the orbital sander. I braced the wood in the Epilog with a piece of metal because it was sadly warped and curved. And now, the moment of truth… would my box fit together, or would I spend the next 10 hours camped out in the OEDK, covered by tears and sawdust?

It fit!! This made me so happy. Now that I knew my entire design was not a failure, I wanted to add some decorations to spice up the box.

I gave my box some handles and recut the end pieces. The rastering did not turn out as clearly as I would’ve liked. I didn’t have enough time to do a second attempt, so left the pieces like that and stained the box using walnut liquid stain. Though the stain gave the wood a more rich color, it caused the engraving to fade even more. Though I would’ve liked another attempt at engraving, overall, I’m happy with how the box turned out.

Cost Analysis:

• 1/4” plywood: $6.32
• Wood stain: $10.99
• CAD Drafting labor: $75 ($25/hr * 3 hrs) – assuming experienced drafter
• Machining labor: $44 ($22/hr * 2 hrs) – assuming access to laser cutter, orbital sander

Total: $136.31