Tarantula Spider Laser Cut

I was trying to find a nice model of spider to download and laser cut to use as Halloween decoration but coundn't find any, so I decided to make one from scratch.

This project is kind of experimental, and I'm sorry but I forgot to make lots of pictures of the process. :)

To make the design I used inkscape. Is a little hard to make an assemble model with a 2d software, but is a way that everybody can give it a try.

I will share a little of my workflow and I my file for cut the parts will be avaliable to download.

Supplies

>Inkscape - if you still don't have it, download it from https://inkscape.org/

>Photos of spiders (or anithing you wish to make)

>Laser cutter

>3mm thickness sheet material for lasercut (plywood, mdf, acrylic, cardboard.... you choose!)

Step 1: Design the Parts

I used inkscape, with is an free and open source software to produce vector design.

When you want to make a drawing or a model of something from nature, a good practice is to have a model. But I didn't want to bother or hurt any spider to make this project, so I used pictures of tarantulas to give inspiration. With the photos is possible to have a very good idea of the proportions of the animal.

I inserted the pictures on inkscape working space an used the bezier tool to draw objects over them. After that I scale in order to make models in a 3mm thickness plywood.

To make the slot joints is a little tricky. I made a rectangle with 3mm x 5mm and designed around it. Using the path>difference tool is pretty handy.

Note that this is a very simple and fast design. I only made two legs models to the spider, a big one and a small one. You cut four of each to make the spider. The other parts are: fangs, pedipalps, abdomen and the body.

Step 2: Laser Cut the Parts and Assemble

Find the closest makerspace avaliable, cut the parts and assemble.

This is the first time I make a 3d puzzle-like model out of a 2d software, so I only discovered how it was going to be after a actually make it. To say the truth I think I could have positioned the legs of the spider better, but it assembled well.

Tarantula Spider Laser Cut