Dr. Wettergreen mentioned in class that this homework would be easy and would take us no more than 2 hours. When he said that, a part of me knew that it did not apply to me, and I was very correct.

For starters, I had to leave my training session before I could have my template printed, so my label, kerf box, and finger link box all had to be printed in one night. Still no big deal, right? … WRONG!

I spent at least 5 hours at the OEDK just trying to make the laser actually cut my piece of wood. After several tears, a lab assistant ended up solving the issue. Thank God! But it was not over.

The kerf was the first stressor because I had gotten the number of cycles incorrect and had to let it run again. The damage was minimal, though, so I continued, getting my kerf and using it to make my box.

I had seen that others had decorated more than one part of their box in previous years, so I wanted to do that too since my name and college didn’t feel me enough, even though I was still doing the beginner level. So, while I spruced up the sides of my box, I let my label print. Tell me why this template, which was going so well, printed over my name again as a vector!

I spent another good bit of time trying to figure out how to rasterize different components of my template. Imagine my surprise when I realized there was a button for that. Once I figured that out, I reprinted it, added a few bubbles, and it was perfect!

I printed out my box second, which went surprisingly smoothly, and after that, I did my template so I could finally leave. For context, 6 hours had now elapsed, and it was near 1 in the morning, so I was bordering on insanity, to say the least. While my label was printing, I assembled my box. After I figured out how they were arranged and assembled, it turned out so cute. But I will admit all of the fingers had a bit of a lip, which I high-key refused to redo, and I didn’t have enough wood to either.

Now, when it was time for the template to print again, it went smoothly. I quickly shut off the machine and closed everything; I even packed my bag. Now imagine my surprise when the template was still stuck to the board. Yes, I had, in my haste to leave, only completed one cycle. I was going to risk doing the whole thing again, but I knew that the camera was not reliable, so I gave up and decided to use a jigsaw to get it off and be done with it.

A pang of conviction from the Holy Spirit hit me since the point of the homework was to test my laser cutting proficiency, not my jigsaw abilities. So, I bit the bullet, got everything started up again, added more bubbles because I refused to redo the same thing again, and reprinted it with 4 cycles for the vectors.

I have never been so happy to see my finished products. I used wood glue and tape to stick both my kerf box and label. I was also quite proud of how I attached it, like a screen protector, and there were my finished products- yay!

Cost analysis:

Wood – $5

Laser cutter rental – $15

Labor – $100 because of the 7+ hours; $25 realistically if I were more competent.

Total – $55, not bad at all.