TAKE 1

Overall, I really enjoyed this project, despite some really annoying obstacles. When Ricky and I arrived at our scheduled time slot, the focus tool was missing so by the time we found it under the table in the machine, we were limited on our remaining time. We should have tested the kerf as advised but we decided to try a kerf of 0.005 – we thought this would work. Unfortunately, the sides would not fit together at this kerf.

TAKE 2 

Because of our conflicting schedules, I came back individually to redo the box. Tracy and I ended up working together to figure out the best way to make it work. First, I lined up the boxes in AI in the top left corner and cut along the top side. After deciding on my images, I placed them over the cuts and deleted the cuts. The reason for this is that I didn’t want to apply the tape over the wood for the raster images. After the images were printed, I deleted them from AI and placed the vector images of the box back exactly in the correct coordinates. I applied tape to prevent the wood from burning on the sides. We used the recommended settings for the given materials thickness but decided to go with a kerf of 0.007 this time.

RESULTS

4/6 of the sides cut cleanly through, but 2 of them had incomplete cuts. To fix this, I just used an Exacto knife in the corner that was still barely connected to remove the two pieces. I was worried that if I ran the laser over it again, it may have been slightly displaced resulting in new undesired cuts.  Despite using the tape to protect against burning on the walls, there was some weird burnt spots that were sticky. I think it was glue residue from the tape that somehow got partially burnt. I removed that stuff by using fine sand paper to make it look nicer before putting it together.  The box fit perfectly which I am very happy about, especially after the first failed attempt!

COST ANALYSIS

Materials:

6 – 4 in x 4 in material used for walls = ~100 square inches of 1/4 ” thick material

$17 for 1/8 x 38 x 96 inch

(Purchasing a larger sheet than needed for single use will be cheaper for multiple uses.)

Overhead 

Labor: 4 hours x $8 / hour = $32

Machine time: 1 hour actually cutting x $20 / hour = $20

TOTAL COST = ~$70 or less per box

Now that I have the correct settings for this material as well as the files for making the box, time could easily be less than an hour per box. The total cost could be brought down to around $30 – $40 per box when making in bulk.