Thinking Out of the Box

Thinking Out of the Box: Laser Cutting and Vinyl Cutting

In this unit, we were taught how to use a laser cutter and a vinyl cutter, concluding the assignment with cutting out a mini-box, a storage box, as well as a vinyl cut of our name and a custom logo. Through designing our boxes in Inkscape and stickers in silhouette studio, we became proficient in using the trace, union/difference, text, and rectangle tool features in particular. Furthermore, we learned how to handle the laser cutting machinery, developing mastery in topics involving vector vs. raster, material type, and more. Below contains the documentation taken throughout the unit.

Link to vinyl cutting workflow

Link to laser cutting workflow

Laser Cutting: Mini box and Storage Box

The images below display my design process and final laser cuts for my mini and storage cardboard boxes. This year, we used Inkscape as our primary application for designing our boxes as opposed to CorelDraw; it similarly allows us to draw/manipulate designs and trace bitmaps. After opening up a new document, I first changed the document properties from pixels to inches, as well as adjusted the custom size to 24" x 24". I additionally added a rectangular grid with .25" for the spacing x and y. Using the rectangle tool with a blue-colored line, I clicked and dragged out an arbitrary rectangle, before changing the dimensions to 3" x 2" (this would later become the shorter side). I then drew another 4" x 2" rectangle (longer side), and finally a 4" x 3.5" bottom. To create the tabs, I created a .5" x .5" square and clicked "Snap bounding box corners". This allowed me to easily move and snap the tabs onto the box. I copied and pasted the squares on the left and right sides, and then placed two equidistant squares on the bottom. Subsequently, I selected the whole figure, went under the path drop-down menu, and clicked "Union" (this merged the squares + rectangles together into one shape). I repeated the process with the longer side, adding three equidistant squares on the longer side and merging it all together. Next, I used the difference tool to create the area the tab would insert into. To start off, I copied and pasted the first tabbed rectangle and colored it red (this figure is the stamper); then, I overlapped its tab with the left side of the longer rectangle and used the difference tool. I did the same with the right side, using the figure as a stamper. To design the bottom, I created two stampers with the longer side (one normal and one reflected) and two with the shorter side (one counter-clockwise and one counter-clockwise+ reflected). I used the difference tool again, removed the fill color for all of the objects (blue), and changed the thickness of the lines to .001 inches.

From there, I saved the file into the Engproj google drive as a plain.SVG and downloaded it onto the laser cutter computers. Before cutting, I pulled the file into CorelDRAW, changed the thickness of the design to "hairline," and print it on the large epilog laser cutter.

Vinyl Cutting: Name + Logo

The images below display my design and execution process in Silhouette Studio. Silhouette Studio is design software that allows you to create and modify text and images and turn it into a physical cut-out through cardstock, vinyl, etc. After designing my boxes, I vinyl cut two stickers, one with my last name on it and another one with an RJ icon from BT21 (logo). Firstly, I used the text tool and changed the font accordingly, before pulling in an image from the internet and tracing it with the trace feature I then uploaded the file to the shared engproj google drive folder and downloaded it onto a separate computer. On a separate computer, I accessed my file in Silhouette Studio, changed the material type in the Send tab, and loaded my cutting mat with the white vinyl. I sent my design to the vinyl cutter by clicking the "SEND" button at the bottom. Once it was finished cutting, I unloaded the mat and placed a sheet of transfer tape on top of the entire vinyl. This allows me to solely remove the cut-out vinyl section from its backing. I used a smoothing board to ensure that the tape was completely flattened. In the weeding process, I extracted the vinyl for the eyes/eyebrows, mouth, and ears (shown in the image). Then in Silhouette Studio, I used the line feature to draw out another separation line for the red bandana; I subsequently repeated the same process (involving sending it to the machine, cutting, and weeding), this time only cutting out the bandana on red vinyl. I again transferred it and layered it on top of the original white vinyl.

Problems Encountered and Solutions

• Certain areas of the vinyl were more difficult to weed (ex. the eyes), due to its minute size. I was wary of damaging the surrounding vinyl, as well as weeding too deep, causing a dent in my box. I resolved this issue simply by using a more precise pair of tweezers and paying close attention to where I was weeding + the amount of pressure I was applying.

• There were no differences between my design in Silhouette Studio and my final sticker.