Pink Cube Paper Form - Laser Cut

I made a 3D cube from a 2D plane created in Fusion that was then laser cut; it was held together by interlocking tabs. Specifically, I used an arrow formation as a hooking technique to hold the faces of the cube together.

Pink colored cardstock was the material used.

First off, I started by mapping out how the cube would look on a 2D plane by roughly sketching it. I thought about where the arrows would need to lock into the other faces to hold the cube together. It was difficult to visualize the shape in a 3D format and understand where I needed to place my arrows and cutouts. I looked at images of 3D cubes and also loop insert techniques from Clement Zheng. I chose the interlocking tabs to try and challenge myself further in thinking bout 2D to 3D formations and to help prepare a little bit for the next project.

This shows my process in Fusion. I started out by creating the faces of the cube, so I put down 4 squares in a vertical line on the sketch plane, and then on the edge of the second square, I attached 2 squares on either side. Squares 1, 3, 5, and 6 would be the sides of my cube, square 2 the bottom, and square 4 the top (the squares are outlined in notes on photo one). The parameters for each square were height 2 inches and width 2 inches. I also ensured that the squares were confined to one another. After that, I had developed the idea for the interlocking tabs (further information below). Once the sketch was finished, I had extruded it and exported it to a DXF file, which was then further edited in Inkscape. In Inkscape, I had added the black lines shown in the DXF file to differentiate between the lines I wanted to cut and the lines I wanted to score with the laser cutter.

These photos show a closer look at the arrow formations and cutout I had designed for the interlocking tab segments. The parameters for the square that was the base of the arrow were height .3 inches and width .3 inches. The parameters for the triangle constrained to the cube were base width .3 inches, and side height .6 inches. To then understand how to measure the cutouts of the arrows to go through and place them in the correct points on the opposing squares, I had made sure to mid-point all of my arrows to the main square plane it was attached to. Then, on square pieces where I needed a cutout, I duplicated the mini .3 inch x .3 inch squares and midpointed them, placing them inside the square and using construction lines so the shapes were only for guideline purposes. Then right above the construction line squares, I made a rectangle with the parameters of height of .1 inches and width of .45 inches, making sure that the cut out was smaller than the base of the .6 inch arrow but larger than the .3 inch square so that it could fit through but once weaved through the hole it would be hard take out causing the design to interlock.

After having the file ready to hit the makerspace, I went and the first cube I cut experienced a lot of problems. As evident in the photos of the cardstock as a 2D face before I even attempted to construct it, I had already discovered a big flaw that occurred, which was that I had not correctly placed my image onto the cardstock, as I placed the image too far to the right, and one of my arrows was cut off. Additionally, I did not know the percentage to which I should put the power to cut to get the score lines, and I had put the power at 5% which was too strong as all of my score lines became full cuts. I still attempted to form the cube and see if at least my general dimensions were okay, which they were, but it was time to head back and retry the cut fixing the problems I had observed.

I tried again to cut the project, making sure to address the issues with the first cube. I paid special attention to where the image was getting placed on the construction paper, utilizing the video tool on the laser cutter to see the image projected onto the paper, and making sure to downsize it. Furthermore, for the scoring aspect, I set the power to 2% and the laser then did a perfect score. The formation was fairly easy to pop out of the cardstock and assemble in the cube. For the assembly and folding, I used a ruler to fold over and run over my folds to get crisp lines.

This photo highlights how the cube did not turn out perfect, persay and there are some gaps in its formation when put all together. I did not have time to recut the object once more, but if I did, I would adjust a few things. For one, I would add another rectangle cut out on square 4 and another arrow on square 6 to get an additional locking mechanism for security, as the cube could use some reinforcements in the stability of its design. Furthermore, I would make the width of my rectangle cutouts .5 inches instead of .45 inches, as I think it was too tight a snug fit, and it was a little difficult to feed the arrows through the cutouts, messing up the tip shape of some of the arrows. Overall, I was happy with how the design came out, though considering it was my first time in Fusion and I learned a great amount from this project.

A big way the reading influenced me was the tabbing section and the idea of tab depth. On page 34, tab depth is discussed. Before thinking too much about my final design, I obviously knew how tabs looked, but I had not taken into account proper dimensions before, so the discussion on deep tabs and tab depth was helpful. I think if the base of the arrow of my design was any less than .3 inches, I would not have had a lot of wiggle room to feed the arrow through. Additionally, page 41 helped structure basic cube formations in my head, and the concept of a cube design being an A x A x A design was helpful in simplifying its metrics. Finally, page 36 and its information on pyramids and triangles was helpful in the process of forming the triangle for the arrows. Furthermore, I found Clement Zheng's joinery link very helpful for the interlocking formations.