This project turned out to be a beautiful failure. At least in my book. To the person who got the box, it was just beautiful.

The main failure is the hinge. The second is the joinery.

The hinge is made by engraving a slot the length of the hinge on two pieces that sandwich together. Then sanding a radius into the outside edge, and then threading the fingers together creates the hinge. The problem in this design is that any over extension of the hinge pries the two layers apart.

The second is finger joints. They are pretty standard for laser cutting, but I personally hate them from a woodworking point of view. The biggest problem with them is edge grain gluing is bad normally. Then you add a big of burnt resin and partially vaporized wood residue and now the already weak glue joint bad^2.

That’s not to say this box itself was a failure. I heard the little girl who was gifted it fell in love with it.

Just that this design wasn’t up to my standards for something that would be worth mas producing. With some refinement I could potentially take a second try at

That said the method of coloring in the flowers was pretty brilliant and a technique I will be using again. First I cut out a template for spray painting that had the sections cut out for the flower petals, with a bit extra contour to make up for slight misalignment or under spray. One for red, one for blue, and one for green.

Then I sealed the whole box with clear coat. Also where I learned you are much better off clear coating first, and then laser cutting.