For this week’s assignment, I made a personalized press-fit wooden box with the laser cutter.

To get started, I first had to figure out the kerf of the laser cutter. Before cutting the kerf box, I cut a small test box to confirm that 37% speed, 100% power, and 50% frequency for four cycles would be able to cut through the wood without flames. Once I confirmed that, I cut out the kerf box and measured the gap between the edge of the box and the wooden piece closest to the edge with a digital caliper, recording the width to be 0.02″. The kerf was thus 0.02/10 = 0.002″.

Next, I designed the box with Makerbox with the calculated kerf. I measured the thickness of the wood to be 0.16″ and chose a finger size of 0.555″ as per the recommendation and aesthetics. I downloaded the template to Adobe Illustrator, then began to personalize the box with some pictures. I wanted to keep the top and bottom of the box blank, so I just added a picture of some fish swimming poetically and a lazy egg (I was feeling lazy) in addition to my college crest (go Murt!) and my name.

With that, I began to cut using the same vector settings as above and 50-50-50 for engraving.

Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of trial and error in terms of cutting. At first, I didn’t notice that the edges of the two bottom boxes on Illustrator were oriented differently than the two at the top, so the two pictures in the bottom boxes ended up assembling sideways. I wanted all my pictures to be oriented the same way so that there was a clear top/bottom to the box, so I recut those two sides.

I thought I was free after that, but I realized the next day that I had accidentally printed ENGI120 instead of ENGI210, so I came back for a final time to recut that side. With that, I assembled my box and had my final product!

I made sure to turn off the laser cutter + exhaust fan and clean the workspace after I finished using it.

There are definitely things I would do differently if I were to make this box again. For one, I think my measurement of the kerf may not have been completely accurate because the sides of my box are slightly loose. I would probably increase the kerf to 0.003″ or even 0.004″ next time. Also, I think some of the engravings turned out slightly darker than I had originally imagined (the fish and Gudetama became slightly fried), so I would want to experiment with different engraving settings.

Cost Breakdown:

Materials:

• 1/4″ 2’x2′ plywood: $8.99

Labor:

• ~2 hours at a rate of $12.32 (lowest end of laser cutting operator in the region): $24.64

Equipment:

• Makerspace access for $50/month = $3.33 for 2 days

Total Cost: $36.96