Week 2: Laser Cutting

The Swatches

For the first part of this assignment, I started by going to the lab and seeing what kind of materials I could use to make my swatches. After looking at my options, I decided on cardboard, 1/8 inch blue acrylic, 1/4 inch walnut, 1/8 inch birch, and 1/4 inch black acrylic.

As I waited to use the laser cutter, I went on Adobe Illustrator on my laptop and created a template to make each of my swatches with. This template was a simple rectangle with rounded corners with the raster and vector settings written in the middle. I then put this file on a usb, before transferring it to the lab computer and opening it again, where I edited the vector and raster setting numbers to match the material I was working with.

I then went to print this Adobe file, where I changed the destination to Epilog Engraver and the placement to the top left-hand corner. I opened both of the applications associated with the laser cutter (Epilog App and Epilog Engraver) My swatch loaded on these applications, and I changed the settings to match the numbers written on the swatch, saved, and then hit preview. In the image below, the red line means that that shape is going to be cut, and the shaded gray/black areas are going to be engraved.

Next, I clicked print and sent my job to the laser cutter itself. Once I altered the origin, raised the bed, and focused the laser, I clicked go and cut out my swatch. This process was repeated for each material, changing the template, vector, and raster settings accordingly.

1/4 inch walnut	1/8 inch birch	1/8 inch blue acrylic	1/4 inch black acrylic	1/4 inch cardboard

The Box

Following Madison's video tutorial, I went to this website and looked under the boxes with flex tab to look at my options for templates of boxes with living hinges. Out of all the options, I decided to use FlexBox2. I played around with the settings for the size and shape of the box in the generator, and ended up changing the radius of the corners to 25. In the default settings section, I changed the thickness to 3.175 to match the 1/8 inch birch that I was using.

After the settings were to my liking, I generated my template, saved it, and then opened it in Adobe Illustrator, where I added my initials on the piece that would be under the hinge on the front of the box.

I changed the stroke weight of the entire piece to .01mm, which is the value it needs to be for the laser to cut. I then went to print the file, and saved it to the Epilog Engraver, again, just like with the swatches. I opened my job in these applications, and changed the raster and vector settings to match the wood I was working with.

I then previewed the project to make sure that the areas I wanted to cut would be cut and the area I wanted engraved would get engraved. Just like with the swatch preview, red means cut and gray/black shading means engrave, so I was all set!

Since everything was all good to go, I sent my job to the laser cutter.

I raised the bed of the laser cutter and then put my plywood into it.

I jogged the laser to the upper left-hand corner of the machine, and then set that point as the origin for my project.

Next, I focused the laser by putting the metal measuring device on the machine. I flicked it to make it move before raising the bed until it just touched the tip of the tool.

After that step, everything was ready for me to actually cut my box! I clicked go, and it was off!
The job started with engraving my initials, which you can faintly see to the left of the laser in the following photo.

As it continued, more and more of my box became visible, starting with the outline of the main shapes...

before working on the first living hinge...

and then the second!

The sides and bottom part of the front came next, and after a few minutes, everything was cut! I took the wood out of the laser cutter, grabbed my pieces, and after a little bit of confusion as I figured out how to assemble the box and a little bit of wood glue on the sides and bottom, my box was finished!