Week 03: Laser Cutting Lantern Shell

In Week 2's assignment: 3D Modeling Smart Lantern, I had already attempted to model the lantern shell using Autodesk Fusion software to facilitate laser cutting, and exported the sketch as a DXF file required for the laser cutter, as shown below.

Modeling for laser cutting, exporting sketch as DXF format file

Material Selection

On February 9, 2025, after completing previous assignments on the computer, I finally started working with the actual equipment. For this assignment, we used the Hans Yueming QuickCut 960B laser cutter at Chaihuo Makerspace, as shown below.

Hans Yueming QuickCut 960B laser cutter at Chaihuo Makerspace

Initially, I wanted to use 3mm thick wood board for cutting, but since it was Sunday at Chaihuo Makerspace and the administrator wasn't present, I couldn't find large wood boards. After searching for a while, I only found a package of rigid cardboard, as shown below. Compared to wood board, this cardboard has much lower strength, but I still wanted to try it out to test the lantern structure designed in CAD and see if the size matched my expectations.

Joint Testing

Before cutting the large board material (cutting area approximately 38x50 cm), I decided to create a small joint test file first, using LaserMaker to draw this small test pattern. The hole was designed for 3mm board, and I set the hole height to 3.2mm.

Using the parameters from our previous test ruler (90% maximum power), I first cut this joint test material from the remaining wood board, with the result shown below. The effect seemed quite good, though the hole was slightly large. I think if I were to formally cut 3mm wood board next time, I would adjust the hole height to exactly 3mm, which should make the joints fit more tightly.

Then I switched to cardboard. Considering it was cardboard, I reduced the maximum power to 35%, but found it didn't cut through. Later, I adjusted it to 70% and successfully achieved complete cutting, as shown below.

Right side set to 35% maximum power didn't cut through, adjusted to 70% worked OK.

After printing, I discovered the cardboard thickness was less than 3mm, probably only about 1.5mm, leaving large gaps with the 3.2mm holes, as shown below.

The cardboard is probably only slightly over 1mm thick, so the holes show huge gaps

Cutting Lantern Shell

Since this was a test print, I didn't modify the parameters and directly imported the previously designed DXF file into the laser cutter, using the 70% maximum power setting to begin cutting.

The laser cutter panel showing the file to be cut and cutting parameters

Cutting complete!

Lantern structure parts just after completion of cutting

Assembling Lantern Shell

Due to the cardboard's softness and oversized joints, I used a hot glue gun for fixing.

Using hot glue gun to secure connection points

Although not as sturdy as wood board would be, this version 0.1 cardboard structure has already allowed me to fully evaluate the size of the lantern structure.

Finished cardboard lantern shell