This time, I was going to create my own little box with Rice logo on it! I was pretty excited about this assignment and was so ready for the laser cutting machine.
On the day I had scheduled for the laser cutting machine, Ben and I worked together to try the settings out for the box. We first found a piece of wood that had the thickness of 0.265 inches and placed it on the table of the laser cutting (we placed the wood in the corner so that we could make sure it would be in the same place if the wood somehow moved away). Then we used the blue focus tool to set the distance for the wood in the Focus menu.
Next step was to go to the makeabox.io website to customize your box. Below was the parameters that I used for my box (thanks for Raniyah’s advice!).
After downloaded the box frame, just opened it in the Illustrator. Since I wanted to do the etch first with the exact place that I wanted it to be and cut out the frame after, I duplicated the file with the frame of the box and the pictures I chose on it, then I deleted the frame in the first file and deleted the pictures in the second file. (notice: for the laser cutter, the stroke of the frame that you want to cut should be 0.001 inch or 0.072 pt)
Let’s start etching! By the way, I really like that owl with the helmet!
(the Raster settings: Speed: 80, Power: 40)
For the cutting part, I used tapes to avoid the burn around the edge.
(the Vector settings: Speed: 6, Power: 100, Frequency: 10)
The laser cutting machine is so amazing! He really did a very good job!
After cutting all the pieces, I assembled them together and it fitted so well on the edges. I’m so proud of myself (or the laser cutter) 🙂
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Cost Analysis:
Materials:
Woods: 6* 4 in. x 4 in. @ $8.99 (1/4 in. x 2 ft. x 2 ft.) = $1.5
Labor: 1.5 hours * $15 (Rice minimum wage per hour) = $22.5
Machine time: 20 min.
TOTAL COST: $1.5 + $22.5 = $24
