Laser Cut Box

This is based on KevinKarney's tutorial.

.3mm plywood

Adobe Illustrator

Follow the instructions of this tutorial.

Some additional tips from me:

- Kerf (if you didn't already know) is the width of the laser, which can skew the size. Kevin's program helpfully includes a kerf finder which is worth doing if you have excess material.

- There are some setting that can make the box customizable. For me, I choose to take off the magnetic latch and have only 4 hinges instead of the 6.

Different things I have changed for each iteration:

Iteration 1: width of wood: 3mm

Iteration 2: kerf: 0 ; width of wood: 3.5mm

Iteration 3: kerf: 0; width of wood: 3mm

Using Adobe Illustrator, the layout of the box can be changed to better fit on the material. For me, my board was 30-by-30 so I rotated pieces and placed them so that they would fit. I added additional hinges to my layout in case I broke or lost some so that I have replacements.

Use a laser cutter to cut it! For me, I choose a material of General Medium Wood with a thickness of 3.5mm. This depending on the cleanliness of the laser and other factors should give a pretty nice cut.

Times it took for each iteration to cut:

Iteration 1: 2 passes around 5 minutes each

Iteration 2: 1 pass around 5 minutes

Iteration 3: 3 passes around 5 minutes each

For boxes that are too loose to be tight fit, I recommend using wood glue to put it together. A little glue, on the edges give a nice tight bond. However, my goal was to make it press-fit which may have been possible with the last iteration.