I totally agree that there is more you can do, but that often comes down to design aesthetic. I try not to do too much all at once, I think that if it’s there it should have a purpose, and as a corollary, I back off from things that will make the build too complicated or even possibly cause it to fail.
The two main ideas are good examples. Engraving the bands could look cool, but given the tone of the dice tray it matches and its relatively clean lines, I felt the hero vault should also stay clean in its design – so I didn’t want to do too much.
However… my first idea for the leather seams was to make swirls that interlock. I think that would have fit with the rest of the design quite nicely. The problem there was that leather stretches (in fact, I needed it to do so, that’s how I got such a precise length – I cut everything a mm or so short and slightly stretched the leather to make it fit perfectly. I felt like if I had the spirals on the end, they would only work if they were perfect, and that there was too much risk to the success of the project if I screwed the leather joins up. Hence I went with a simpler yet still intentional design.
Anyway, I agree, the swirly joins would have been awesome and the plan was to put them centered on the long sides, so they would be more visible. Maybe worth trying next time if I rig up some way to stretch the leather without stretching the join areas at all. Maybe a gentle clamp of some sort won’t squish the leather and will let me pull the middle evenly.
Thanks for all the detail!
Yes, veg tanned leather can stretch a bit & even more when it’s wet, but it also shrinks back–it’s a feature that is used extensively for molding leather over forms… (I’ve only seen videos, not something I’ve done, apart from letting some pieces for hair holders dry into a curved shape within a tube.
But just ideas–your box is absolutely beautiful as-is!
One of my best friends had his 25th anniversary of ordination back in June. I got him an assortment of 25 cigars and was going to make him a custom box. Well, with my lasers going to the fritz that messed up my box plans. And then I saw @evansd2’s different joints and box creation and that made me keep redesigning because, darnit, the game was upped so much by that time. Well, I finally got around to giving him his gift. It was plain tabbed box of cherry that slipped over basswood. The worst was that one side tabs were cut short because I didn’t place the design correctly to material. Still need to give more of a margin of error in placement compared to what i was used to. And he only got fifteen cigars because I smoked ten of them waiting to get this project done. I tell myself that I will get around to a real cigar box and make up for the ten missing stogies. But @evansd2’s projects take it out of me for a while, they are just so good!
Cigars! You had me at Cigars. I’ve got some leather cases I want to try to engrave, and I’ve even thought about scoring a message or something into the wrapper of a cigar. I’ve got thousands of them, so I imagine I can find one that I’m not fond of to give a whirl in the forge…
I, like everyone else here, love your nested inlay. I had an idea for a project with an inlay of different woods but mine would be text rather than the swirls. Do you accommodate for the width of the laser cut or not and if you do, how do you do that, measured wider stroke in AI?
Just curious. It appears that your inlay has a very tight tolerance, that’s why I am asking.
Yes I do, Search the forum for “kerf correction”. There are lots of posts about it.
You do use strokewidth but maybe not in the wya you’re thinking. The Glowforge ignores your stroke width. Instead you use ge stroke to offset your path by a set amount (offsetting works but I prefer the stroke method).
Phenomenal craftsmanship! What thickness was the leather if I may ask? If I’m trying to line the interior of a box to store dice (especially metal dice), what would you recommend that same thickness or no?
