If you have access to a laser cutter, we sincerely hope you’re aware of boxes.py. As the name implies, it started life as a Python tool for generating parametric boxes that could be assembled from laser-cut material, but has since become an invaluable online resource for all sorts of laser projects. Plus, you can still use it for making boxes.
But even if you’ve been using boxes.py for awhile, you might not know it was actually an entry in the Hackaday Prize back in 2017. Creator [Florian Festi] has kept up with the project’s Hackaday.io page all this time, using it as a sort of development blog, and his recent retrospective on 2024 is a fascinating read for anyone with an eye towards hot photonic action.
In it, he describes a bevy of new designs that have come to the site, many of which have been developed either by or in conjunction with the community. For example, a new tool for generating IKEA-like pegboard is sure to be useful for the better organized among us. The last twelve months also saw the addition of a parametric air filter box, LEGO sorters, storage bins, book holders, bird feeders, and plenty more.
At the end, [Florian] has some interesting thoughts on how the community as a whole has developed over the years. He notes that in the early days, any code or designs proposed by users for inclusion in the project usually needed work before they were ready for prime time. But now that everything is more established, the pull requests he’s getting are so well done that they rival any of the original work he put in.
We’re glad to hear that the community is coming together to make this already fantastic project even better. It sounds like [Florian] is even getting some help to track down and eliminate the remaining Python 2.x code that’s still lingering around.
Here’s to many more excellent years for Boxes.py!
Now to get a laser cutter.
Find a maker space that has a laser cutter. Many do.
some libraries trying to be hip with the grant money have publicly available laser cutters
Libraries aren’t getting as much money as they used to, so this is going to be limited.
Oh come on Moderator!
The folks were just having fun with my comment!
I still stay calculating the correct kerf was going to be hardest part.
Daja has a 600 dollar Fibre laser , I have their cheaper $120 laser engraver, its got bluetooth and is pretty cool. But I wish I could cut stuff. I’ll wait for a laser cutter to be released for $300 by bambu labs :)
I have an ender s3 I could convert to a laser cutter if I buy the hotend module for few hundred bucks I think…. I think that’s how that works
Can the designs be adapted to work with a CNC?
That probably depends on how you generate your tool paths for cnc. If you’re using fusion, I could see it working with some work. You’d have to find a way to make all the tabs and holes into dog bones, is all.
I haven’t used boxes.py but There is a dogbone add in for fusion 360 where you can just select the face and it will generate the dog bones
Depends on the language your CNC understands and if you can find a converter (SVG to Gcode maybe?), you’d probably need to tinker a it to find the best settngs for “burn” but yeah, I reckon it should be possible with not a lot of effort
I think dog-bones would need to be added to internal corners in his vector generating tool.
That really depends on how tool paths are generated. For instance, in fusion, you could use contour paths to get the dog one effect following one face. The dog bone doesn’t have to be in the SVG or dxf.
You would need to increase the curf of the tool head to match your cutter bit and that should allow these designs to work.
No, it depends on how you generate tool paths. Cnc doesn’t necessarily follow the lines of an SVG like a laser cutter might. You have to tell it what to do.
There are different programs for this. For the hand held shaper origin, you can tell it to pocket, or just cut on one side or the other of a line, or follow the line. In other programs you’d have to take the dxf or SVG and turn it into a solid, then plan tool paths around it.
To make “dog bones” you could drill holes with your cutter at the inside intersections of finger joints, or you could have the cutter follow a single contour back and forth in a contouring operation, similar to a slot cut.
By cutting on one side of the line, you don’t have to worry about keef too much in generating the box, I’d set keef to zero. A good pathing software (CAM) will have a way to adjust tolerances for the machine.
Yes, exports dxf.