Cool Superhero Birthday Name Postbox

This instructable is to make a really cool superhero postbox in the name of that special person that you can use for birthdays, weddings and barmitzvahs. It will be big enough to stand on its own on the floor or a table.

I did all the cutting using a laser cutter at my local makerspace called Building Bloqs in London.

What you need:

• Large cardboard sheets
• PVA/craft glue
• craft knife/box cutter
• pencil
• SVG files for laser cutting cardboard
• Old comics you don't want
• wallpaper paste/diluted PVA glue
• paste brush

First of all you need to use a lasercutter to make your letters. I've cut quite a few out of sheet card so that I can glue them together in many layers. You can cut them manuall, but that will take some time.

I used a large lasercutter that allowed me to create 800mm x 600mm letters. However you can easily use smaller card and make the letters to the size you need. If you don't need a postbox then you can simply create giant letters that you can decorate.

I started with the letter B. There are two specific cut outs here. The first is a standard full cut out which will be placed on the top and bottom with about 3 layers each.

The second cut out makes up the middle part of the postbox with an additional area cut out to leave a void for the letters.

You may be able to see some 5mm holes cut in the letters? I added these with the intention of using 5mm dowels to line up the layers easily. However, after a few layers it was evident that it was not so easy. In the end I lined them up buy hand.

Glue the first 3 bottom layers together using the pva glue. Remember to use 3 full letter cut outs.

Then move on to the middle layers that contain the void area and glue these too with pva craft glue.

Build up the layers until you are happy that you have a deep enough postbox that will stand on it's own.

Finally, glue the last three full letter Bs to complete.

Leave to dry for 24hrs or longer then you will be ready for covering it with comics!

Carefully mark on the front, the location of the slot. If you have any leftover centre layers you can place this on top and draw along the inside of the lasercut void.

Use a knife to cut along the lines and through the 3 top layers of card to leave a rectangular hole.

It's time to get messy!

Grab some old comics and remove the staples. Cut the page in half so they are all separate.

Mix up some wallpaper paste or water down some pva glue to use to paste the comics on to your giant letters.

Apply a thin layer of paste to the cardboard. Remember not to over do it as the card is very absorbent and you don't want it to get soggy. Place a comic page on the paste and the brush a little paste over the comic. Continue to do this all over the cardboard letter. You will need to paste around corners and cut and fold pages. It's a bit like wrapping large birthday presents.

That's it! Hope you like this one. I'm sure there are easier ways to do this. But I thought this method would be more precise and give me very solid and sturdy letters, and also prevent me from getting blisters.

Please vote for me! Have a look at my other recent laser cutting instructable.