Spirited Away Calendar Cube Holder

This is a Spirited Away inspired calendar cube holder. I designed this a few months ago using art from the movie and Corel Draw. This is only the holder, not the cubes, sorry! If you do make your own cubes, this fits 2x2x2 little cubes!

Materials/Tools needed:

Epilog Laser Engraver (75 Watt or higher with a bed of at least 12x12, you can also use a different laser engraver but this tutorial is made for Epilog)

12x12 1/8th inch Birch Plywood (Any 1/8th inch wood will do, you can buy 4 foot by 8 foot sheets at Home Depot and cut them up)

Super Glue

Utility knife (Just in case it doesn't all cut through)

Sander (You can hand sand it with pieces of sandpaper also!)

If you already have Corel Draw then you can use that software, if you do not want to pay for Corel Draw then download Inkscape (it's free!) Download here. Be aware that Inkscape does crash a lot, so save often for future use.

Here is the PDF I used for this piece. Save it in a place where you can easily find it.

Upload this image onto Corel or Inkscape. To do this Click File -> Import -> then choose your image.

If you have trouble with importing on Corel, please watch this video.

If you have trouble importing onto Inkscape, please watch this video.

Set your page size to 12 x 12 inches and fit your uploaded PDF into the 12 x 12 inch page size. To see how it fits check the Corel Draw image from step 3.

To cut this piece select file -> print.

When you get to the print screen select click "Name" then scroll down to Epilog Laser. This will take you to a separate screen for step 6!

This step depends on how your Epilog Laser works.

Make sure you click Auto Focus (Usually located under Center Engraving), and have your piece size the same as your page (12x12)

Also keep DPI as 500, and Combined settings (Rastering and Vector Cutting)

For Rastering I use Jarvis with 35 speed 70 power. This gets the shading pretty well.

For Vector Cutting I use 15 speed 100 power and 500 Hz. Our laser just got back from the shop so I have been using 25 speed instead of 15, but it all depends on how your laser works.

After you have set these, click "ok"

If you have trouble with this step watch this video!

After you have set your Epilog Settings you are ready to print. Click the print button which will send your print to the Laser.

Put your 12x12 piece of wood in the Upper left corner of the laser and press print when ready.

For best results sand all pieces!

Glue all three short pieces into the slots on the back piece. Each piece should be coming out towards you if you are looking at the rastered part of the backing. Once the glue is set, you can glue the bottom piece underneath the three short pieces you just glued. Enjoy!