Building a Laser Cut Box
Justin Xia
For this project, I built a laser cut box following the beginner assignment guidelines in ENGI 210. The process involved measuring material, calculating kerf, generating the design file, editing in Illustrator, and cutting the box on the Epilog Pro laser cutter.
Measuring Material and Kerf
I started by measuring the thickness of the plywood sheet with calipers. The sheet came out to 0.183″ thick. Since press-fit joints depend on kerf accuracy, I cut the kerf template provided on Canvas. After pressing the test pieces together, I measured the gap at 0.0970″. Dividing this by ten gave an average kerf of 0.0097″.
This value was used for the final box design to ensure tight joints without glue.
Designing the Box in MakerCase
With the measurements ready, I went to makercase.com and generated a box file:
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Dimensions: 4″ × 4″ × 4″ (external)
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Material thickness: 0.183″
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Kerf: 0.0097″
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Tab width: set to balance strength and ease of assembly
MakerCase produced an SVG file of the box panels, which I exported for further editing.
Editing in Illustrator
I imported the SVG into Adobe Illustrator. The first step was combining all the line segments into solid shapes using the Shape Builder tool, which cut down on unnecessary laser operations.
Next, I added the required etching:
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My name, course, semester, and date on one side
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The Duncan College crest on another side
Once the layout looked good, the file was ready for laser cutting.
Cutting on the Epilog Pro Laser Cutter
I loaded the file onto the Epilog Pro and set the following parameters:
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Engraving (raster): 600 resolution, 100% speed, 20% power
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Vector cutting: 55% speed, 40% power, 50% frequency, 3 cycles
The laser cut cleanly through the 0.183″ plywood, leaving smooth edges and sharp etching. (See timelapse of the process.)
‘Assembly
The six sides snapped together tightly thanks to the kerf adjustment. No glue was needed. The etched text and crest came out clear, and the joints were secure.
Cost breakdown
