This is my first attempt at making a box of any kind! It holds four decks of cards that come with the boardgame Above and Below.
It took me three tries to get this prototype “right” but I’d love some help from someone who has worked on similar projects. The fit of the pieces together is very loose; I’m gluing this one together. I think I’ve seen the term “kerf” around and maybe that’s what I didn’t account for. Does anyone have some advice on how to do this so that the pieces fit together a little more snug right from the beginning?
Your laser isn’t a knife, it’s more like a saw blade. When it cuts, material is removed. If you size a tab the same width as a slot, that missing material will make it loose.
Nice work. Did you use a box generator or do it yourself? There usually f is a setting in a box generator that adjusts for kerf. Make it small and it is a loose fit, make it large and it is a tight fight. Usually between .014" and .010" for medium Proofgrade.
I make a little piece that I use to test for kerf. BCut out on a small piece of your material. Adjust accordingly.
Festi actually has a generator for kerf as well. It produces squares with edges that cut at different kerf settings so you can find the one that has the right feel. Festi uses “burn” for “kerf”.
You can make a simple test box and play with the burn setting until you get a fit that you like. Then in whatever design program you are using, figure out the size of the slots and tabs which you can make use of in the future.
I don’t use box generators either. You can cut small test pieces, a couple of parts with variations of slots, notches, and tabs. I make them with a few different sizes (down to fractions of 1/10 mm) until I find the fit that works for the specific material I am using. For notches and tabs, I’m worried about width (to match material) and kerf on the sides. For slots, you have to take all dimensions into account. Once you’ve played with it a while, it doesn’t take long to reproduce for different materials.
The rulers and gauges work well as a shortcut to find starting points, and if you’re using adhesive, very often suffice.
