This week I used the OEDK laser cutter to make a friction-fit box, complete with my name and the crest of McMurtry. The first step in creating the box was to measure the kerf of the laser. Alois and I used the standard kerf cut, a rectangle with 8 lines, to gauge this value. We cut it out and stacked them end to end, and measured a kerf of about .015″. However, with further testing this seemed too large, and we reduced our kerf to .007″ for the final cut.

After the calibration and kerf settings were complete, I used Makercase to generate the box file. I set the right kerf and uploaded the file to illustrator, as well as set the line thickness to be .001″, so the laser cutter would recognize it as a vector. I added my name, ENGI 210, Fall Semester 2022, and the date to the first panel. I also downloaded the McMurtry crest as an SVG and imported it into illustrator as well. After changing the settings to the desired raster level, I started cutting the box!

Once all the pieces were cut out, I took them out of the wood and fit them together!

The final product:

Cost estimate:

Wood: $5

Time (2 hrsx$25/hr): $50

Total: ~ $55