This week I laser cut a box.  A box with scales on it

I spent 1 hour making the box, and 2 hours printing it between test cuts, troubleshooting, final cuts, and assembly.

If we assume a wage of 16 dollars an hour for someone designing and printing the box, the labor cost would be 48$.

The material cost breakdown is:

 

1/4in 2’x3′ plywood from OEDK stock – This sheet would cost $10, and I used 120 square inches. The wood I used would cost $1.3.

 

Therefore the total cost of the box would be $49.3.

 

I used makercase to make the box vector cut pattern.

 

Then I created a custom pattern for the scales. 

The way I created the pattern was to make a square grid array, and then filling it with an oversized circle, I then applied a gradient to the circle.

I took an image from online for the Sid Rich crest.

 

Here are the pictures of the final box.

I had some problems assembling the box after cutting, I made the tolerances too tight and paid the price.

To fix this I used a box cutter to shave down the tabs until it fit together. I used a mallet (very very lightly) for some of the more stubborn pieces.