For the laser cutting assignment, I went for the beginner level. It is not that I have never used the laser cutter before, but I knew that we are going to have the opportunity to continue using it and get more creative in the midterm project, and this week I wanted to focus more on the waterjet cutter which I had never used before.
In order to create my laser cutted box, I strictly followed the instructions in Canvas. I used the box generator website where I selected all of the desired measures for my box. The size I chose was the one given by the assignment of 4’’x 4’’x 4’’, and I chose the recommended 0.5’’ separation between joints; then I measured the thickness of my wood and inserted the value, and finally I performed the kerf test as indicated in the instructions and inserted the value in the website too.
Once I had all the measurements right, I downloaded the file given by the website and edited it in adobe illustrator in order to include my name, and my college badge.
When all of this was done, my file was ready to be cut, so I put the wood into the laser cutter, and printed it. When assembling the box, I realized that it was hard for some of the parts to fit together, so I used sanding paper to make it easier to assemble.
This allowed me to put all of the pieces together to finish my box.
The last step, as always, was to clean the workspace!
The cost of this object includes costs of raw materials, labor, and machine time.
Raw materials:
- 2ft x 2ft sheet of ⅕’’ plywood – $25.78 for 2ft x 4ft of ⅕’’ plywood
- Total costs: 25.78/1.5 = $17.19
Cost of labor
- 2 hours – $10 per hour
- Total costs: 2×10 = $20
Machine time
- 2 hours – Estimated $4 per hour
- Total costs: 2×4 = $8
Cost of the box: 17.19 + 20 + 8 = $45.19
