Hello we are new GF users. I’ve been playing around with making some simple boxes. I am having a lot of trouble putting the boxes together. The slots are VERY tight. I don’t know if my laser isn’t cutting all the way through or if my box design isn’t a good design. Any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong?
I would assume you would need to increase the height or width of the slots for the tabs or the tabs themselves if it is the width by a few thousands of an inch and it should fit alright. if you get a set of vernier callipers and measure the thickness of your material and the size of the slot it will get you back on track. if they were not cutting through all the way the material would stuck in the hole after the cut. if it is doing that just increase the power a few% and try again.
Did you want to open a support ticket with Glowforge? Seems like a topic better answered by the community, so I’m going to move it to Everything Else.
Where did you get the file you are using, and are you using the right thickness of material for it?
If you are using an box generator, the kerf allowance does make a difference. Depending on how thick the material is I do from a 0.012 to 0.015"
Vernier Callipers are now next on my to get list. It is 1/8 proof grade draft that I’m cutting and I was using the default settings. It definitely feels like it isn’t cutting all the way through. That was the problem at first. I reduced the speed of the cut to 150 and that seemed to fix the cut problem but still they didn’t fit together well.
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Box-O-Matic app.
Thanks robermar36, I wasn’t sure if it would go to the everything else thread. Thanks for redirecting.
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My kerf setting was .0125. I’ll try increasing it to .015 and see if that combined with the slower speed will resolve.
Thanks all.
In the Box-o-matic app in the Size tab at the very bottom, you will see a kerf value. If you set that to zero your fit will be very loose. Add tiny amounts to tighten up the fit. If you do a forum search on kerf, you will probably find test files for determining optimum kerf for a given material.
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Increasing kerf will make it tighter. You need to lower the kerf value.
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Oh. Thanks Cynd11. I see now. Had that backwards in my head. Can I assume most folks will use a rubber hammer to tap edges together on the box? Cynd11 you got me started on this box obsession with those really cool 3D acrylic night light boxes. Now I can’t seem to get them out of my head. 
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Yes, gently!
Awwww, shucks!
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