Today I start laser cutting the structural parts of the case.

I did one more change in the design, which is adding coutouts to inlay a 2 mm thick aluminium plate where the emergency stop is located. I’m not sure whether it is necessary or overkill, but better be safe than sorry. And it adds an additional layer of difficulty to the project: milling aluminium.

For the actual laser cutting, I got very annoyed as apparently I bought really bad quality plywood. Some time ago, when I modded the K40 air vent, I made a box out of 3.2 mm plywood that was a dream to machine. I went to every single hardware store that’s even remotely in my neighbourhood, but most of them only stocked 3.6-4 mm sheets. In the end I found 3.2mm in a large sheet so that’s what I ended up buying, since all my joints are designed for 3.2 mm. The thing is, I knew it was a bad quality brand with lots of glue blobs inside the ply. The glue blobs are very hard to penetrate (admittedly,  the product may not be bad quality from a general fabrication point-of-view, but for laser cutting it was a bitch).

If only I could remember where I bought that original sheet of 3.2 mm plywood I used to make the venting box… In the end I managed to cut everything out, but it took way too long with multiple passes and re-cuts. And a stanley knife…

First of all some cnc pornography (the profiles being cut are not the latest revision):

The picture below shows the bottom of the sheet, clearly indicating a glue surge inside the wood.

  

The following part was exciting, as all my planning and designing would finally be put to the test, and hooray! Everything clicked without having to force anything. Nothing was off. All joints are flush. It was glorious! I glued it all together, and it is structurally very solid already.

Behold: progress!