Introduction

Through this assignment, I laser cut a box with my name and class on one side and my college crest on the opposite side. I detail my steps in this blog post.

Procedure

Evan and I decided to use the same laser cutter for our boxes because we believed we would only have to measure kerf of the machine once this way. After cutting out the kerf box and measuring the distance with a caliper, we determined the kerf to be about 0.147/10 inches, or 0.0147″.

We calibrated the machine by cutting 0.25″ squares to get a cut that didn’t cause too much edge burn but still cut through the board.

I then input my measured kerf into Makercase, and then sent the file to the printer. I printed with cutting at 85 power, 6 speed, 10 frequency and etching at 40 power and 80 speed.

When I tried to assemble, the box didn’t fit together. One reason we deduced was that the measured kerf wasn’t quite right. Another was that we had not changed the wood thickness in Makercase, leading to a printing of a box of 0.118″ thick wood instead of 0.19″ thick wood.

I changed the kerf to 0.0142″ and tried cutting again. I also didn’t like how dark my etching was, so I changed the etching power to 30. Overall, the fit of the box was better, but the front piece split during assembly, so I printed another front piece with a kerf of 0.0140″.

Once I got the front piece printed with a smaller kerf, I finally assembled by box. There is an imperfection on the side with the Martel crest, which was caused by the incorrect kerf. I didn’t want to reprint every side, as I didn’t want to waste wood, so I called it here.

Our clean workspace is shown below.

Cost analysis

Total Cost: $26.21

Wood: $6.01 ($36.08 full panel)

Labor: 2 hrs at $10/hr: $20

Laser Cutter Use: 2 hrs at $0.10/hr: $0.20

Conclusion

While I am not fully satisfied with the fit of my box, I think it looks pretty nice. This is good practice for the midterm, where the problems with kerf will likely be magnified, so I’m glad that I experienced this problem now rather than later.