Laser Engraved Picture Box

Ideation

I always have a hard time coming up with something meaningful for Mother's and Father's Day. I like to show I put a lot of heart into buying them a gift without having to spend a fortune. This year I learned how to use a laser cutter, and saw the endless amounts of gifts you could create with just some acrylic and a picture. Thus I decided to make a picture box keepsake for my mom and dad.

Project

I recreated this project twice before I was happy with the final product. I did not have any experience etching a photo on acrylic so when I etched a gray-scaled photo, it gave a 'negative' picture effect. The way a laser etcher works is that it is programmed to penetrate a material based on the color used in the photo-preparing software (Adobe Illustrator). For instance, black will give the most solid and defined image.

For the second try, using my knowledge in how the laser cutter responds to color, I decided to turn the picture into a black sketch so as to make the picture appear more flat and more 'cartoon-like'. I was very happy with the results in the end.

Puzzle Box

I used acrylic cement to keep the puzzle box together and it worked very nicely. Because the cement is flammable, it needs to be done in a fume hood. I recommend using tape to hold the pieces together as it does take 72 hours to completely solidify. Also, because the cement melts the acrylic together, you should work on a clean slate.

Light

There are multiple ways to allow the picture to stand out. For instance, you can shine a light through the engraving and see the picture project on a solid background. For my project, I inserted a color-changing LED candle to shine a variety of colors through the image. You can also place the box at the window and allow sunlight to pass through it.