It’s another box, but made using a laser cutter!

This homework was pretty chill, mostly involving playing around with different settings to see which ones looked the best.

Below, I tried to measure kerf by cutting out five rectangles, and test different engraving/vector settings:

The way I made the .ai file had the laser cutter cut each rectangle individually, so there were actually 10 vertical cuts, instead of the desired 6. So, my kerf calculation came out way too big and my first attempt the box did not fit at all.

I ended up trying a kerf of 0.003″ for my second attempt, which fit well, but I wanted to see if I could get a slightly tighter fit since one piece was a bit loose. For my next attempt, I used 0.0035″, which was tighter and still could be taken apart

Here it is, with all 6 sides:

 

I found some .svg files of some icons from one of my favorite games and placed them on the five free sides.

Reflection:

I had completely forgotten that you could place painter’s tape to reduce the burn marks. Instead I had been trying to play around with speed settings. Next time, that’s something I definitely want to do.

Cost Estimate:

1/8″ Plywood estimate (Woodpeckers): $6

Labor (3 hr, $10/hr): $30

Total: $36