Marc’s PokeBox | ENGI 210: Prototyping and Fabrication

Hi everyone!

This week, I got to laser cut a box and engrave some cute designs onto the faces of the box! I’ve never laser cut before, and now I know that the process is much easier than I thought it would be. I definitely see myself laser cutting gifts and designs for my friends :).

Creating the Box Design

First, I created an .svg file using MakerCase. The dimensions specified on the software are: 4” LWH, 3/16” thickness for the wood (will vary depending on what you laser cut), outside dimensions, closed box, and finger joints with a size of 0.5015.

Screenshot of the dimensions.

After specifying my dimensions, I clicked Download Box Plans. Then, in the pop up window, I changed the kerf, or the width of the cut made by the laser cutter, of the box. Based on previous iterations in the class, I estimated that a kerf of 0.008” would work. I made an initial cut using these dimensions and found that they were very close to fitting. The kerf that worked for me was 0.0075”.

Decorating the Box

One of the faces had to include my name and year taking the class, and another face had to include an image of my residential college crest, McMurtry. With 4 empty faces, I wanted to add a cohesive design, so I found cute icons of the 4 starter Pokemon in Kanto here. I then converted the .jpg image on the link provided into an .svg file. A lot of my work for the projects in class will likely be Pokemon-themed, and I’m not complaining :D.

Within Adobe Illustrator, I used the shape builder tool within each box face to ensure that the laser cut them in one vector versus 100 lines. I also typed my header and added my college crest and Pokemon icons into the shapes provided by MakerCase. For further refinement, I clicked the Pokemon icons and used the Rasterize tool in Illustrator to create a clean look.

The lines for the laser cut box were red and the thickness was 0.072 pt or 0.001” as specified by the laser cutter instructions in the OEDK.

My Adobe Illustrator file.

Time to Cut!

Weights on the wood.

After logging into Fabman and powering the laser cutter, I turned the exhaust fan on. I placed my wood onto the cutting bed and added weights to remove the warping from the wood. I also used the auto focus feature on the Epilog to ensure I got the best cut possible.

I sent the print to the Epilog software and put my cut in a nice corner to make sure that there was enough space for other cuts.

Focusing the cut in a good place to save the amount of wood that can be laser cut.

Once everything was in position, I then specified my laser cut settings as shown below.

As recommended by the OEDK, the VECTOR cut settings were 20 speed, 100 power, and 10 frequency.

My initial ENGRAVE settings were 500 resolution, 80 speed, and 30 power.

Cutting time!

Initial cut results.

As previously mentioned, my initial cut did not have the correct kerf. The teeth of the box were slightly too big as seen above, and my engravings for Bulbasaur and Charmander were a little too dark. I changed the kerf from 0.008” to 0.0075” and changed the engraving results to 800 resolution, 90 speed, and 20 power to create the fitted box below! The teeth for my second cut box were just right, and with a little brute force I was able to get it to fit all together. The press-fit is really strong and difficult to pull apart!