Box

[Michael Kowalczyk]

I have been playing around with some of our 3mm Baltic Birch and 1/8" Premium MDF core material and have had some fun making some for my Nephews. Will post a pic later. So how long does it take to make one on your laser? Just curious since we all have the same file but different materials and machines. Mine take just at 4 minutes with engravings on top and on front. Subtract the engraving and it's around 2 1/2 minutes.

Thanks Hannu for adding on to the hinge that was posted a while back. I like the way you added the rounded corners and they act like a spring to hold the box tenons in place.

I also like the the 2 semi circle pins/keys for the back of the box and how you used the hinge and the pins as sort of a functional design element.

Thanks again for sharing and inspiring us to kinda collaborate.

[Gary Hair]

Acrylic, wow - I never even thought it would work,

The only bad thing about acrylic is that it crazes when you glue it, not so bad with colors but it's very noticeable with clear. It does look pretty cool though.

[Michael Kowalczyk]

Ok So here are a few from different perspectives and the 2 different materials. Not sure how clear it will be since I had to down size the original.

[Khalid Nazim]

Michael, can you share your settings that got these times for engraving/cutting?

[Gary Hair]

So, acrylic may have sounded like a good idea but it's not going to work, not with cast anyway. I heard an odd noise a minute ago and looked at the box - the hinge was slowly cracking. I don't have any extruded, I'll get some and try it, hopefully it won't crack.

Gary

[Scott Challoner]

So, acrylic may have sounded like a good idea but it's not going to work, not with cast anyway. I heard an odd noise a minute ago and looked at the box - the hinge was slowly cracking. I don't have any extruded, I'll get some and try it, hopefully it won't crack.

Gary

Try impact modified acrylic. It's not as brittle. PETG would work too but it doesn't cut as nice.

[Michael Kowalczyk]

Hey Khalid,
They are my normal 3mm Baltic birch setting with a 2" lens:
Raster-100% power and 35% speed 333 DPI
Vector cut -100% power-1.15% speed and 5000 hz

Trotec has an optimizer built in to the Job Control that shaves about 40 seconds off of the time just by changing the order from the original one posted here. The hinges take up the most time, obviously, but that is where the most time can be saved. Just watch where the start positions are and you'll know what I mean. It, the original CDR file, basically runs over each line twice instead of chaining them in a better sequence and with proper starting points, once it has been corrected by the Vector ordering menu option in the Trotec Job Control.

[Gerd Spatz]

it would be nice to see if any of you have invented something new into it
Best regards,
Hannu

I'm to lazy to draw each box (fingerjoints / flexible hinges) by hand, so i wrote a browserapp to simplify this... I just have to enter some parameters, selecting one of 3 boxtypes, clicking a button - ready to cut.

Free download (type 2 - right image / made for 3mm plywood):
http://www.frag-den-spatz.de/shop/bo...ebox-type2.svg

Gerd

[Joe Hillmann]

Here is a book cover I made of 1/4 in luan. It takes about 5min 30 seconds to cut it out and less than a minute to put it together (should be faster with 1/8) But all the other engraving took almost 20 minutes. The outside I tried to make it look like a book cover and on the inside I engraved the map that is from the book. If you look close at the 4th photo you might be able to see where I engraved lines into the ends of the case to look like pages.
Hobbit 001.jpgHobbit 002.jpgHobbit 003.jpgHobbit 004.jpgHobbit 005.jpgI still need to come up with some type of latch. Most likely made of leather, I like the latch that was shown in the first picture in this thread but it wouldn't work on a book shelf because it sticks out too much.

[Dee Gallo]

Very helpful, Michael, thanks!

Beautiful designs, Gerd! I need to try your download, thanks!

Excellent job, Joe!

This forum certainly produces some inspiring stuff! Love it!

~ dee

[stan kern]

made one ,amazing design

[Hannu Rinne]

Michael, Gerd & Joe,

Very nice work, thank you !


Attached some small additions into the box, I had nothing else to do today - saved in v11, or at least it should be...

Regards,
Hannu

[stan kern]

its just great

http://youtu.be/EYayNCpdeuE cardboard box

[Bill Gailey]

On a whim I reduced Hannu's original cdr file by 50% and laser cut it into a black/black core matboard and evrything worked. The reduction in the tab openings, etc was perfect for the thickness of the matboard. Made 45 of these little boxes for a presentation last week to a group of businesses. I also lasered a sugar cookie with the word "Imagine" on top and put them inside the box. I used some purple glue stick to glue the tabs and lock pieces, other than than the key on the top of the box. This turned out great and has already led to a job with a pen turner to make custom boxes for his custom pens. Now I have to try the svg app and see how that works.

[Khalid Nazim]

That's a fantastic idea - on top of the amazing design that Hannu did. How much time did it take for you to make one box from matboard - cutting and assembly.