Guides

What you need to know to laser-cut an interlocking object that actually holds: a few pages, written for beginners and useful to everyone else.

• An interlocking box in five minutes

  Five parts, finger joints, the file for the machine. The first object to make.

• Material thickness and clearance

  The two numbers behind nearly every joint that will not go together.

• Laser kerf: how much it takes away

  How to measure it in half an hour, and why it is not the same as clearance.

• How to make a cross-lap joint

  Two parts crossing, each cut away by half. The simplest joint there is.

• The finger joint (tabs and slots)

  The corner joint: how many tabs to use and why they sometimes snap.

• Preparing a DXF for laser cutting

  Closed outlines, layers, units: the rules that get the cut right first time.

• Laying out the parts on the laser bed

  Bed size, spacing, multiple sheets: how not to waste material.

• What to cut with a laser

  Plywood, MDF, acrylic, cardboard — and what must never be cut.