Laser Cut Jewelry Box

Today we're going to make a simple jewelry / keepsake box with the lasers available here at Techshop. This box design originally came from the epilog website which I did some slight modifications to the etchings.


Materials:

Laser cutter
Piece of 1/4" or 1/8" poplar or oak board
Wood glue
clamps
Painters / masking tape

Here is the file in CDR (corel draw) form. You can add a simple etching on the bottom piece such as the person's name if you like.

You can use any size piece of wood that would fit the pieces of the box. ie a piece of poplar 6"x 24"which you can buy at Lowes for 4 bucks would work fine. The file calls for 5.5"x 12" so you can actually make 2 boxes out of a piece of 6"x24".

Before putting down your piece in the laser bed, I like masking mine off with some painters tape on both sides to minimize the burn marks from the laser. This gives it a cleaner look.

Here are the settings I used for a 60watt epilog laser.

Not that my rastering is set to bottom up. This also helps with smoke marks thus giving you a cleaner box.

Here it is in the laser rastering and cutting the pieces.

Now we need to peel off the tape before putting the box together. I just use my fingernails for this one.

Putting the box together is our last step for this project. Most of the pieces are identical except for the front and back piece. (refer to photo)

When gluing, make sure you get all the joints and that you put down a nice thin layer. DO NOT JUST SLOP IT ON.

After gluing all the pieces, clamp both sides and let it sit for at least 30 min.

Enjoy.