INTRODUCTION
For this laser cut box project I was fortunate enough to be able to this at home as my family runs a laser cutting business from our garage! I am semi-familiar with the program that we use at the house but for this project I really dove deep and put myself into the driver seat. This project gave me the most frustration due to the amount of trial and error I needed to do.
MATERIALS
-1 sheet of 6mm laser cutting wood
– 70% Isopropyl Alcohol
-Microfiber cloth
Cost Breakdown
Electricity and machine/tool costs not included.
- 6mm Plywood 609mm X 914mm $12
- 70% Isopropyl Alcohol $3
- Microfiber cloth 50 Pack $12 (Best Deal)
- Labor $21 for 10 hours of work
Total: $237
PROCEDURE
The first step of the process was to create the template of the box and it was taken from box maker program found from the school project work sheet. This box has a few variables that must be changed. I changed the unit of measure to metric, the thickness of the material to 6mm, changed the hold to fingers, closed box, and made sure to not touch to the kerf on this program. Once the box looked like how I wanted to I downloaded the SVG file.
Once the file was created, I then opened up the program relevant to the cutter at home, the Lightburn app, and opened up a new file.
(Lightburn User Interface)
Click Import function in file from the top left. Then I looked for the box I named as “Box,” and import into the program. Once the box was placed onto the work station in the gridded area of the program I needed to add the logo and the words.
The logo and the words were the easiest part of this assignment. On the left of the lightburn screen tap the large letter to create a text box for typing onto the drawing. Type in “Alejandro Valdez, ENG 210, spring, and February 7th, 2023.” For the Rice logo I looked up the Rice “R” and saved the file.
Import the image to lightburn and the program will not draw the lines on its own, right click on the image and select “Trace image” to have the program create lines around the image that it identifies. Changing the sharpness of the image will add more lines and dots and can be changed as a gradient. Once the image is now identified by the program as a line within the path of the laser center the line by left clicking on the “R” holding shift then left clicking on the box outline of the left, right, top, etc. If the boxes are not individual then select all of the boxes and click on the group icon with many heads on the top function bar. Center the words as best as possible to an appropriate side that does not have the “R.”
Now that the images are all lined up we now change the laser settings. One the R and the information needed, those will be fill, while the actual box outline will be categorized as line on the left of the information window marked “layers.” Click on the different line colors and double left click on the 2 numbers next to the output switch. If a line was selected the power is 55 and the speed is 7.5. If the fill was selected a power of 30 was selected and a speed of 175 was chosen as the values for a box that I was comfortable with. With the power now selected I placed the sheet of laser board and placed it into the laser cutter and placed weights near the relevant working area to keep it from moving. I then frame the location of the print on the laser board to ensure that I do not intersect anything I don’t want to.
(Framing the cuts shown above)
Finally, I press print to have the board come out fully cut out. Obtain all pieces with gloves ON and glasses on to prevent laser rays from potentially getting into eyes. Once the box was taken out clean the box with a alcohol rag in order to safely post process the material for no toxic chemicals to touch the bare hands.
Once the box is treated with alcohol put together.
FINISHED!!!
