This week we were tasked with creating another box, except this time we were using lasers! This was one of the projects I was most excited for as I’ve never been able to use a laser cutter before.

To start, I used boxes.py to design my box. This site had all of the necessary settings laid out in a simple way and was easy to use.

I changed the x, y and z values to 110 mm, which is roughly 4.3 inches, as well as the thickness of the material to 3.1 mm, which is roughly 1/8th of an inch, after measuring the piece of wood I was cutting with calipers. With these settings I downloaded the file and opened it in Illustrator. Next, I decorated the box with a couple images as well as my name and then it was ready to print.

I used 20% speed with 100% power to cut out the pieces and 60% with 40% power to engrave my box. These settings worked nearly perfectly as I only had to lift up the board of wood for my pieces to fall out. There also wasn’t much wood burn on the engravings but it was noticeable on the edges of each piece. In the future, I can use masking tape to help relieve this as I unfortunately wasn’t thinking about it during this project.

The assembly of the box went smoothly and the finger joints locked in snugly with a little effort. Overall, I am pleased with the result and am pumped to be able to use the laser cutter again soon for my midterm project!

Cost Breakdown

Item                                                  Cost                             Quantity           Total

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2x4ft wood board 1/8th thick      ~$16/board               1                         $16

Laser Cutter Operator                   $20/hr                        1 hr                    $20

Prototyping Engineer                    $35/hr                        0.5 hrs              $17.50

Facility Cost                                     $100/hr                     0.5 hrs              $50

Quality Control                               $20/hr                       0.25 hrs            $5

Total Cost = $108.50