Laser cut box

What's Needed

You will need Adobe Illustrator, follow the instructions below to download if it's not installed on your computer

Some ways to use your box but there are many more!

First steps

Box Generator 

Start by using a box generator to create a 2D template that will be laser cut.

The box generator creates finger joints that connect the sides of the boxes together, similar to puzzle pieces. 

Choose a Material:

*Take note of your material thickness unless you are using paper*

Most important factor when using a box generator or creating a box on your own is the thickness of your material. 

Download and save plans as an SVG

2D box layout

Once saved, open the file in Illustrator

Note on resizing your design: Box too big or too small? Resize it in the generator! 

Scaling it in Illustrator it will change the size of the finger joints and the pieces will not fit

Illustrator 

Click "Open" > Select your svg file to open it in Adobe Illustrator

Changing Document Color Mode

When you open Illustrator change your Color Mode to RGB 

Select > Document Color Mode > RGB

*The Laser Cutter only reads RGB values!*

Tools & Interface!

This is the basic interface for Illustrator 

*May look slightly different depending on operating system*

Selection Tool:

Allows you to move, rotate, or scale an object or group of objects

Direct Selection Tool:

Allows you to select, move, or modify points in a path or shape

Shapebuilder Tool

Allows you create complex objects from simple shapes with merging and subtractive operations

Patterns

An easy, quick way to add customization to a design is through patterns. You can also create your own patterns in Illustrator 

When searching for patterns you want to find ones with clean lines, preferably black and white. These will be easier to image trace

*If you only intend to raster your patterns you will not need to image trace*  

After bringing your pattern into Illustrator. If it's not an svg you will only need to image trace it to cut or vector engrave

When imaging tracing > select "Silhouettes"

Select Expand with your object selected (using the selection tool)

This will convert the image to a vector creating points throughout your object

ShapeBuilder

The ShapeBuilder tool will allow us to crop the pattern into unique shapes or fit it into the box that is being created 

Using a couple of shapes I will crop the pattern to fit it into the shape I want

You could also use the box shape for this as well

The Align tool is helpful to center shapes based on multiple factors

Default operation is additive, you will see a + by the mouse pointer

Hold Alt to subtract and left click on the mouse to drag through what you want to subtract. (you will see a - indicator next to the mouse)  

To use the Shape Builder tool: 

Now, you can use the selection tool to move your patterns into your box designs how you see fit

To center your patterns you can use the align tool again 

Color Settings

Now that the design is finished. It's time to decide how it will look when it's laser cut, which parts get Cut, Raster, or Vector Engraved. 

These processes all work in RGB values with the exception of Raster, which is grayscale. The size of the stroke is also crucial for Vector engraving and cutting. 

The color settings are under the toolbar in Illustrator 
Examples of each process

Color changed without stroke size adjustment

Note: The polygon pattern wouldn't work well as a cut process. The entire outline would be cut out losing the detail inside the pattern. 

Here's what it will look like once you change the stroke and color

Setting up your Artboard

Here is an example of how you can setup up the artboard so it's easy to know the location of the material within the laser cutter

Example: 2 sheets of construction within the laser cutter

To prep the laser cutter refer to the First Cut tutorial 

That's it! Now your file is ready to be laser cut, you can save it out as an Illustrator file and follow the link above to cut out your box

Resources

Some useful links to help you get started