Lazered Record Crate

Brent Dowell

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Well, my 45 rpm record collection is in serious need of organizing and I'm darn tired of the cardboard boxes I'm storing them in. The plan is to make a bunch of small crates, and then custom build a little rolling cabinet to store the crates in.

At any rate, why not decorate things up a bit?

Here's the basic crate, with my 'Isolated Desert Compound' logo on it. I had a guy draw that up for me a while back.

I'm also going on a little trip and am making some other custom boxes for some friends.

Been having a lot of fun with my little toy laser lately.

record box.jpgrecord box toxenes.jpgrecord box gone mental.jpg
 
The big problem is it's making me want to upgrade to a k40, or something more. I could probably squeeze the k40 in, not sure about anything with more wattage than that, but it is kind of fun.
 
Like the crate did you cut it out on the ox? You got the laser down pat to get such good images. Cool idea.
Crates could probably do ok with thinner ply though to lighten weight a little .


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It's really such a simple design, there's no advantage in using the CNC.

1/2" ply is probably as thin as I'd go, since all the dados and spacing are based on 1/4". Makes it really simple to machine the parts.

I've been having too much fun with the laser. When I first got it I spent a whole lot of time trying to get things to look good and they either looked burned or faded out.

Fired it up a little while ago, changed up the software and suddenly it just seemed to work. Maybe I got more experienced with how to set things up.

I'd like some cleaner prints, but this thing really is a toy, and the wood I'm using is pretty crappy.
 
Just wanted to share the design of the box. Stu commented on my facebook post about it that he thought I was doing butt joints. Not so,

I made it with stopped dadoes and rabbets.

Since I'm going to make a bunch of these, I wanted to do them in as simple, and sturdy a fashion as possible. Doing finger joints with this cheap ply doesn't work so good, no matter how wide the fingers. In fact even routing the dado pockets can cause some flaking of the top layer of the ply when going against the grain.

I'm doing this with what I think is called the quarter/quarter/quarter method. Basically, I setup a 1/4" bit, 1/4" high, 1/4" away from the fence on my router table. Using this one setup, I can easily cut all of the tenons and dados in 1/2" (ok, 15/32) plywood.

All I have to do is mill up some stock of the correct size, do a little router table work and they are ready for assembly. Well, after routing the handle holes and adding the embellishments.

A little glue is all it takes and they are quite sturdy.

box design.jpg
 
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