How to Make an Acrylic Ardunio Box!

Hello! My name is Aaron and this is going to be my very first Instructable! In this Instructable, we are going to be covering how to make an acrylic case for an Arduino with a removable top. For this Instructable, we will need acrylic, glue, a laser cutter, a caliper, sheets of cardboard, and a computer with Coreldraw. For the purposes of this Instructable, we will be using a 6x2x4 inch box for the examples in this Instructable.

To begin, take the caliper and measure the depth of your acrylic sheet and record the measurements. Then, using the computer, go to http://boxmaker.rahulbotics.com, and enter in your preferred measurements (again, for this Instructable we will be making a box that is 6x2x4 inches, and I will be using these measurements in all further examples). After you have entered in your measurements, download the file and open it in Coreldraw.

Next, using Corel Draw, go to the “box file” in the layers tab, and ungroup all of the lines. Then, highlight each individual part of the box, and create a layer for each part of the box (ie. Top, bottom, side 1 etc etc) with red color and hairline width. Then, add any designs you may want to onto the box and ready the design for the laser.

Now, if you so choose, you may use the cardboard as a test cut to make sure that everything works correctly and lasers properly. Notice how when I cut the cardboard, I am able to easily pop out each piece of the box. Once you are confident, ready your piece of acrylic in the laser cutter, and cut away. To pop the acrylic pieces out, it may take the laser two cuts, so play accordingly.

We are almost done! Finally, use the glue to glue together every piece of the box except for the top as it is removable. Make sure to drizzle just a bit of glue into each of the sides of the box, and then let dry. Then, once the box is dry, place the top on the box  and it is complete! Did I forgot to mention that I made it at Techshop?