If there’s one thing I love almost as much as video games, its laser cutting. This week in EDES 210, I had a fun time in the OEDK laser cutting my very own box. One important thing I learned about laser cutting in this unit was kerf. Before I could begin sculpting my box online, I had to measure how much material is removed by the laser, or “kerf”. I did this by cutting a kerf box from a template provided by the instructor. My laser cutter of choice was the Epilog Fusion Pro.

Laser cutting the Kerf Box

As can be observed in the image below, I pressed the pieces together within the kerf box, then measured the amount of empty space with calipers and divided by 10 to get a value for my kerf. This value was 0.00480 inches.

Measuring the empty space in the Kerf Box

Next I had to measure the thickness of the wood. While not pictured, the value that I measured for thickness of wood was approximately 0.183 in. Now that I had values for kerf and thickness, I could build my box template.

Using the website provided by the instructor, I created a template for my box. I specified kerf, thickness, and finger size to create an optimal box fit. One important thing to note was that the box program rounded up my kerf to 0.05, which would cause me a small issue down the line. After saving my template and opening it in adobe illustrator, I was able to add my name, the Will Rice crest, and a fun design to the sides of the box.

Adobe Illustrator file used to cut/engrave

Next, it was time to fire up the laser cutter. Before cutting, I had to focus the laser cutter, set an origin for my cut, and then check the cutting perimeter to ensure nothing was in the way. When cutting, the settings I used were 55 speed, 35 power, and 50 frequency with 4 cycles. When engraving, I used 50 power, 100 speed, and 600 dpi. These settings seemed to work great, as my cuts and designs came out well with no issues! I made sure to cut two sides of the box first to ensure the grooves fit nicely.

Assembly of first two pieces of box

After confirming the sides fit together, I went ahead and cut the rest of the box out. I made sure to practice proper spacing to conserve the amount of wood that was being used, and I think I did a pretty good job.

Spacing of cuts in plywood

All that was left was to assemble the box. When putting together the box, it was clear that the rounded up kerf affected the box fit a bit. It took a little bit of force to get the edges together, but the snug fit is definitely better than being too loose! I’m pretty happy with the final product! I had alot of fun getting to know the laser cutter better and am looking forward to getting more experience in the midterm project.

Final Product

Cost Breakdown:

Materials: (Using Lowe’s.com as a resource)

Final workspace used to assemble the box