Treasure Chest 5mm Plywood with Clasp and Hinges

thingiverse

Loved the original design by Sean Flanagan and Ryan McGeary so much that I resized it for 5mm plywood. Also took out duplicate pieces and redistributed them for 12.5" x 8.5" sheets, which work great with my Chinese K40 laser's official cut area of 300mm x 200mm. Cutting an 8' x 4' sheet is easy and produces minimal waste. Attached the cut sheet so you can make eight boxes by following it carefully. Laser settings vary depending on your machine, but I used 40% power and 400 mm/s for engraving and 40% and 5 mm/s for cutting (single pass) with my 40W CO2 laser. Programs such as Gimp, Inkscape, and K40 Whisperer made the process smooth. Five-millimeter hobby plywood from Lowes costs $16, and they will make twelve cuts for you at $0.25 each. So, each gift box could cost around $2.50 in materials. Tips: Use a scalpel to help where the laser didn't cut deep enough. Assemble the entire clasp and hinge before gluing them to the box. I used a discarded pin from a pop-rivet that's easy to cut to length and fits perfectly. The final assembled size is 11.25" x 8.25" x 6.25". It took me about one and a half hours to engrave/cut, another hour to assemble, and the fit is super tight so you can assemble without glue if you want. I used a little hobby hammer to gently nudge the pieces together. Ask me any questions you have - but use online converters for different file formats and find your own pictures and art since I'm not going to distribute those.