Hiiii world!!
I’m so excited to share my latest project: making a floral-themed jewelry box with the laser cutter!
I started making my box right after my tutorial session with Katherine on Saturday, so I could remember most of the steps clearly and avoid any safety issues. This time, instead of creating a standard box, I was inspired to make something more delicate and personal, something I would use myself when the class ends. I’ve never laser cut anything before, but I’m familiar with vector drawings, so I started by searching interest box designs on freepik.com/illustrations and vecty.co (free websites that I used before for designs). I eventually found a beautiful floral hexagon box template and imported it into Adobe Illustrator. I adjusted the size to make it bigger and added my name, class name, and date on the bottom piece for engraving, as shown below.
Dimension measurements:
Height:4 in (side pieces) 4.5 in (total with lid)
Base: 2.5 in each side, 5*5 in (total)
Plywood: 24*24 in, 0.19 in thickness, 0.002 in kerf
Before actually cutting the official piece, I experimented with the small hearts handle piece to correctly set up the frequency, power, and speed. My name plate was slightly burned with the default settings sent through email, so this time I lowered the power and frequency a bit more, and the cut turned out nice and clean. Considering the complicated patterns and hollow spaces on my box, I only did one cycle each try for the hearts handle and stopped at cycle 3 when the hollowed piece fell. This helped me greatly reduce time during the official cut.:>
Once I was confident in my settings, I started the final cut. I took a careful approach: running one cycle first, checking the results, and then completing the remaining two. I made sure each time the coordinates were the same. In total, the cutting process took about 45 minutes. Watching the laser trace each intricate floral pattern was mesmerizing—it felt like the design was coming to life right before my eyes. (I took sooo many pictures…)
After the cutting was done, the real hands-on work began. I carefully removed all the cut-out pieces, especially the tiny floral patterns. For the most delicate parts, I used a pen tip to gently push them out without damaging the design. It was a slow process that required a steady hand and a lot of focus.
Surprisingly, assembing was the most challenging part. The sides and base just wouldn’t snap together easily and I was afraid to use too much strength and break the piece. At the end of the day, I handed sanded all the joints (12 at the top and 12 at the bottom) using a 120 grit until there were no gaps when assembling.
After assembly, I sanded the entire box’s exterior to smooth out some light burn marks on the wood. This is also the part that taught me the importance of patience and precision: I was going too fast with the base and sanded off the “K” and “0” engravement!:(
Overall, learning to use the laser cutter and turning designs into real-life objects is such a fun process. A special thank you to Katherine for always having the answers when I had questions! ;))
Clean Workspace:
Cost Estimation:
