Aidan Asal Project 2: Laser Cut Jewelry Box

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been making a Jewelry Box for my second project in the "How To Make" class. All woodcuts in this project were made using a laser, as opposed to "hand-cut" with machines in my previous project. In this blog post, I will go over the process and result, as well as reflect overall.



Process

I started this project in Fusion 360, a cloud-based CAD/CAM tool for collaborative product development that combines industrial design, mechanical engineering, and machine tool programming into one software solution. As opposed to the previous project, I spent the majority of my time on the computer, not in the maker space. I followed tutorials on how to adjust my previous tool tote design to make it a laser-cut design. This was pretty straightforward and I learned the basics of design choices for laser cut design. I made it all the way through the tool tote tutorial and was ready to go, but I decided I wanted to be more creative and not just make another tool tote. I ended up deciding on designing a jewelry box for girlfriend. So I started from scratch with a new design. Ryan had a tutorial that designed a box that was similar to what I wanted. I followed that tutorial to get the basic box design and lid hinges. I then wanted to add my personal touches. This included expanding the dimensions and making the necessary adjustments for that, as well as adding internal dividers for the various pieces of jewelry.

Even though I had a tutorial to follow, the aspects of different dimensions and a different material thickness led to much trial and error. First, I had to adjust some of the connecting points to allow more support that would have come from the material thickness before. Second, a lot of time was spent extruding and combining all the pieces together. Since my design has many pieces connecting, this was complicated at times.

Finally, I had my design complete and was ready to cut. I had export each of my parts faces as .dxf files and uploaded them to Google Drive so I could access them on the laser cutter computer. I then imported all the files into Adobe Illustrator and arranged them on a document that represented the piece of wood I would be cutting from. A key point was to adjust the line stroke thickness and conserve as much wood space as possible. I was ready to cut now, but would it be perfect the first time? The answer is no. There were a few issues, I forgot to make cut a slot for a connector in two major pieces, the laser didn't cut all the way through, and my lid didn't fit into the hinges. So, I had to go back to Fusion 360 and make the adjustments, export, prepare the cut document, and cut again! I also engraved my girlfriend's name onto the lid. Worked great! It was super satisfying.

Lastly, I needed to combine all my parts together to actually make the Jewelry Box! I put all the pieces together to make sure they fit. They did, but only in one specific way due to some design errors. I then glued the connectors together and clamped them with tape. I didn't have to glue my insert dividers because of how snug they were. All that was left was to let it dry and I have a Jewelry Box!



Result

I am happy with the result of my Jewelry Box. It displays the lessons I learned and the mistakes I made along the way, but also the care and effort I expended to correct those mistakes while making it the best it could be. I hope my girlfriend likes it and uses it for her jewelry! I learned a lot from this project and will outline those reflections below.

Reflection

Upon reviewing my process and result, I thought of a number of things I learned and wish to do better. I will break this down into the different phases of the process.

Setup and organization wise, I wish I had put more care into every action I took in Fusion 360.. This would have made my life easier later. There were many silly mistakes that caused issues and hacky solutions later. Another thing would be to be more forward-looking with some design decisions. Due to the thickness of the wood, I should have adjusted the lid hinge to be more resilient.

During the cutting, I wish I had ended up with a project that was more flexible for adjustment and exported use in the future. I had to make a number of single adjustments and changes after the fact. I wish my project didn't need this. This would have made the cutting much more pleasant.







After cutting, I learned how to use wood glue and to be careful with pieces as thin as the wood for this project. As always, I just need to be more patient and detail-oriented with my actions.

Overall, this was a continuation of this class and I look forward to where we go next.