This week, we were tasked with creating a “finger joint box”, which was a box we could construct that didn’t require any glue or fasteners to hold together. The laser cutter is my favorite machine in the OEDK (a close battle with the vinyl cutter), so working with it in this project should be very fun.
I started by uploading my settings to makercase.com to create the dimensions of the box. I went with the standard 4in x 4in x 4in box with a finger size of 0.530. After this, I went to measure the thickness of my wood, which came out to about 0.18 inches, and plugged it into the website as well.
The next step was to measure the kerf of my cuts, which came out to be about 0.008in, also plugging this value into the website to then download a usable svg file to upload to Adobe Illustrator. I will note here that this process for me wasn’t easy, and this was mostly do to my own laziness. I did a while print of my box without properly dealing with the kerf, and my box was flimsy and fell apart. If you are a student reading this in later years please take the time to do this step it is very important and will save time in the long run.
Next came the fun part, adding my images. A lot of these images like my Kirby and Jones logo came from my printed nameplate, however, I still wanted to add something new. This is why I choose to add Meta Knight, so I could add more practice to vectorizing images to make them ready for laser cutting. Filling all 6 of my sides with images, I went on to the settings of my print. First, I made sure that I set the cut vector cut for my box pieces to 0.072pt. Then I used the settings 40 speed and 100 power from my engraving, and 38 speed, 100 power, and 10 frequency for my vector cut, repeating this cut 4 times. After turning on the exhaust, I started to cut.
The final product was a box measured so well that I had to use a hammer to hit the pieces into place. My engravings looked a little burned, but this is normally how I prefer my cuts. For next time a slightly higher speed might be nice.
Project cost?
- Raw materials
- 1/8” x 2′ x 4′ wood panel: $6.49
- Tools
- adobe illustrator 1-month subscription, free with the OEDK
- laser cutter, free with the OEDK
- Labor
- $14/hour, what I get paid to work at the OEDK
- ~3 hours: $42
TOTAL: $ 48.49
Clean Work Space
