I had Laser Cutting training two weeks ago (25th Sept.) and I think it’s a very practical technique.

This is not a complicated project,  but the process I completed was convoluted.

first cut a Kerf box to determine the Kerf.

The curf should be 0.0125-0.0126, but I thought at this point that I needed to add a little bit to give the box room to combine on all sides. So I set the kerf on the Makerbox website as 0.013, this set the stage for one of my subsequent failures.

After downloading the preset box template from Makerbox, I imported it to Adobe Illustrator for design.

The cutting parameters are then set and sent to the laser cutting machine for “printing”. In this step I checked several times how long the cutting would take to complete so that I could adjust the “speed” parameter.

Unfortunately my first attempt failed, the laser cutting’s start point was set too high, causing problems with the three-sided interface of my first box. You can see that from the pics.

You can see from this picture, which the graph is actually really close to the top edge of wood board, no room for a full size finger joint.

Then I recut the top 3 pieces in a better postion, but the bomb I planted earlier went off, the kerf is slightly bigger than expected.

Even though I can put these 6pieces together to make a complete box, they are not solid. This resulted in me needing to redo all the work.

Cost Type	Cost	Price	Source	Quantity	Total
Materials	1×4 Board	$10.99 /yd	Joann.com	6 yds	$67.94
Labor	Laser Cutting Machine Operator	$19/hr	ziprecruiter.com	3 hrs	$57
	Prototyping Engineer (You!)	$38/hr	ziprecruiter.com	1.5 hrs	$57
Overhead	Facility Cost (Machine Time)	$50/hr	salasers.com	2 hrs	$100
	Quality Control	N/A
Design	Graphic Designers	$24.91/hr	ziprecruiter.com	1 hrs	$24.91
Total					$306.85

The final estimate cost of the laser cutting box gone crazy high to more than 300 dollar, this due to several different reasons. First of all, I made two mistake which let me almost made 3 box for the final version, which means beside all my budget goes double even tripple. At the same time, if this product is industrially produced, many expenses will be incurred once and for all, such as graphic design and structural design. There are also costs such as facility cost, which will be reduced for each product when it is mass-produced. I think the cost of this product can be compressed into at least under $30 each with process improvements.