Memorial Tea Light

Materials

• 4mm Plywood
• Clear varnish
• Wood glue

Software

• Inkscape

Tools

• Laser cutter
• Paintbrush

Other

• Font: https://www.dafont.com/pesta-stencil.font

• https://en.makercase.com/#/

Using https://en.makercase.com/#/ I selected the "Basic Box" option and created the open box.

The important settings are as follows:

• The material thickness; using "Custom Thickness" I set this to 4mm.
• Kerf setting of 0.08 (this may vary depending on the laser cutter). This can be set after clicking "Download Box Plans". Once clicked, you go to "Kerf and Corner Compensation" to set this.

Download the SVG plan.

Using Inkscape I then added my text and other decals to the box. I also drew the hole for the tea light in the bottom square and created a final base piece for the box.

If you are wanting to be able to read the resulting text after the letters have been cut out you will need to choose a stencil type font or make modifications your actual font. This is best explained but looking at the image of the letters above. Looking at the "0" for example, if the slits were not added then when the "0" is cut out, the middle would be lost. As far as the "A" and "e" goes, while they have the required slits, these would not have been large enough to accommodate the actual cutting process and so I needed to increase the gaps.

My basic approach to achieving this was to convert the text object to a path and then to edit that path.

In order to prepare the template for cutting, the line colour was changed to RGB Red and the line thickness to 0.001mm. When doing this in Inkscape you will no longer be able to see the image but it will cut.

Glue the pieces together and once dry, varnish the box.

As the sun sets, inset the candle, light it and think of your loved ones.

"A life that touches others goes on forever."