Laser cutting is one of the most interesting techniques in OEDK with high precision and efficiency. As I was wondering what to make that looks like a box at the laser cutter lab, I saw the EpilogPro and was surprised that it actually looked like a box. The decision is made and I’m going to make a laser cutter (model) out of laser cutting.

1. Designing

As usual, the first step is designing. I want to make the laser cutter with two movable component: the lid and the core xy.

The z axis cannot be moved unfortunately but the rest is set and ready to be drawn in Illustrator.

2. Testing

To make the design work, testing is necessary. To test the kerf, I decided to make smaller boxes and see if the tooth match well.

It turns out that a kerf with 0.004” works the best.

3. Drawing

The next step is to have everything set up in Adobe Illustrator. I started with a auto-generated box from web with correct kerf. Then I realized that the kerf only works for the outside but the inner parts still need to be drawn by hand. With a lot of work, I finished all the design in AI

The top is for wood and the down is for acrylic.

4. Cutting

This step is simple: set up the laser cutter and cut the material

5. Assembling

With a stick in the correct diameter, I was able to create an axis without any glue to connect the lid to the other pieces.

With almost no effort, everything is assembled and the outcome looks like below.

6. Engraving

This is when I noticed I forgot to include the engraving part. I re-focused the laser and Engraved my name at the back and some features of laser cutter at the top.

The laser cutter box is then finished.

 

Cost Estimate:

Material:

1 square feet of 1/4 acrylic+6 square feed of 1/8 wood cost approximately $10

Labor:

5 hours of work* 12 $/hour=$60

Therefore the overall cost is $70