Intro to Laser Cutting for Beginners

1. Welcome to this beginner course!: There's an experience that's hard to explain that comes with seeing a laser cutter creating something that you designed with precision. What makes it even more incredible are the updated features that make it easy to take something like this photograph and engrave it onto a piece of wood, or this hand-drawn mandala and turn it into a custom jigsaw puzzle. A side from designing and making flat products, we can also design a product in parts and pieces that get assembled into furniture, like this side table, or intricate light fixtures like this table lamp. Hey there, I'm Tim Ung, an architect, and your instructor for this introductory level course to laser cutting. I've been using a laser cutter since 2010, and I have a YouTube channel where I share my process of designing and making physical products, and some inspiring architecture projects. I'll be going over common things that you need to know about laser cutting, show you how you can create custom products of your own at three different difficulty levels, and also show you example projects along the way. By the end of this course, you'll have a better understanding of how laser cutters work, and how you can design custom products made by a laser cutter. As you go through this course, remember to check out the document that I put together in the resources section to help you on your laser-cutting journey. Let's get started. 2. What Laser Cutter Should You Get?: If you already have a laser cutter, but you are new to this craft, you can skip this lesson and move on to the next one but it's a good primer where I'll be going over some of the most popular laser cutters out there and resources to get you started on this journey. If you're a beginner and this is your first time designing and cutting anything, I recommend getting a Glowforge laser cutter. When you get a Glowforge, it actually comes fully assembled and ready to plug into an outlet and use. You'll need to have a window nearby so you can vent outside, but if you don't have a place to vent the fumes and smoke, you can also get their air filter like if you live in an apartment or a condo. Just keep in mind that the air filter is as loud as a shop vacuum. It tends to fill up quickly and the cartridge needs to be replaced. The more frequently you cut, the more you probably will need to replace it. I always recommend Glowforge to beginners because if their intuitive online app and strong community on both Facebook and their own forums. If you plan to use their proof grade materials, their online app has cut, score, and engraved settings that the camera that's onboard will actually scan automatically and identify the type of material you're using, as well as the settings that are right for it. If you don't have a laser cutter yet, I'll share a link in a document that I put in the resources section of this class that'll get you a discount of up to $500 off of a Glowforge pro. Once you get to a point where you're comfortable in laser cutting projects and you know that you wanted to do it as a small business or a side hustle, I recommend upgrading to a stronger and more durable laser-cutter like an Aeon Mira, Trotec, Boss, Ometech, and others. These laser cutters cost a little bit more money, but they're worth it because of their power, speed, and optional accessories for cups and bottles. When you get past this level of laser cutters, then you're probably looking at something more professional and custom to your business. That's why you've done something wonderful and you can look back at this course and say, "Wow, I'm so grateful to that Tim Ung guy on Skillshare." Let's move on to the next lesson, which is understanding power and speed for laser cutting. 3. How does Power and Speed Work?: The most essential part of laser cutting is understanding how power and speed are used to engrave, score, and cut a project. At its most basic level, more power means that the laser is going to have a stronger beam, which gives it the ability to cut through thicker materials. Depending on the type of laser cutter that you have, the amount of power is going to vary. The more watts a laser cutter is capable of handling, the more powerful the beam is going to be and the more materials it's going to be able to cut through. For this course, we'll focus on the type of laser cutter that most hobbyists and crafts people will be able to afford and use, which is a 40 or a 45 watt laser. Most of these laser cutters will be able to cut through a quarter-inch thick piece of wood if it's running at full power and at a slightly slower speed. The speed that the laser is moving across a material determines how much time the laser is going to spend in that specific area. The slower the speed, the more the laser will be able to cut that specific area that it's in and the faster the speed, the lesser the laser's going to cut. Here's what a test material looks like where I was trying to figure out the right setting for a piece of leather that I was cutting. This is helpful to know for cutting and engraving because the faster we can get the laser to move while achieving the cut or the engraved that we're looking for, the more time we can save on a project while minimizing the amount of burns and scorches from too much power or too little speed. When you get the hang of how deep you want the laser to cut a material and you know the speed settings that you want to use, you can start getting into scoring materials. Scoring is when a laser cuts through the surface of a material, but it stops before it cuts all the way through. Some materials like cardboard and chip board can be scorched that it's easier to fold the material along the line. In this lesson, you just learned about how the power and speed setting of a laser affects the ability to engrave, score, and cut a material. The higher the power, the more the laser can cut. The lower the speed, the more time the laser will spend cutting through a specific area. Let's talk about materials for laser cutting. 4. Basics of Materials: Most manufacturers will give you a list of common materials and settings for cutting, scoring, and engraving. In some cases, you'll need to figure out what works best for the material that you want to use. In this lesson, I'll share information about common materials, uncommon ones, and how you can figure out the right settings for a specific one that you want to use. First, let's talk about the unsafe materials for laser cutting. As exciting as it might seem to have the power of a laser cutter at the tips of your fingers, it's important to know which ones you need to stay away from because they can release gases that are actually harmful to your health and the machine. If you ever have any doubts about the material, my suggestion is, just stay away from using it so that you protect yourself and your family from potential harm. Some examples of unsafe materials are plastics like PVC and ABS, which will emit a harmful chlorine gas that can really affect your health. Full leather because it often contains traces of harmful plastic, chrome-tanned leather due to the chromium that's in the tanning process being released as you cut the leather and carbon-coated fiber. If there are any other materials that you find in a scrap pile somewhere and you don't know if its laser is safe, don't risk putting it into your laser cutter. Now, let's briefly talk about common laser cutting materials. The most popular three materials that many laser cutter owners use are wood, acrylic, and paper, I'm starting to see more people using rubber for stamp making and vegetable-tanned leather for products and really awesome outfits. In some cases, manufacturers will have their own software or app with recommended settings that work for specific materials which you can use as a basis to start from start adjusting the power and speed based on what you learned from your first few cuts and engraves. Every material will have a slight variation from the manufacturing process, so the same settings might not always work with a new batch of the same material. One of the questions that I see the most about plywood, which is probably the most popular material to use for laser cutting, is why doesn't my laser cutter cut through my plywood in some areas, but it goes all the way through and others? This usually happens because plywood comes with two different core types, MDF and layered ply. MDF has a consistent density throughout, which means that the laser is going to cut through every part of it the same. Layered ply has inconsistencies because of the fibers of the wood, the amount of glue that was used, and whether the layers were full or had voids where pieces of wood were missing. What worked in one area of layered ply might not work in the other. You can tell if it's layered ply by looking at the side of the sheet of wood where you'll find a pattern of dark and light layers. If it's an MDF core, you'll see one solid color throughout where the thin sheet of wood veneer on both sides. Now let's shift over to some of the uncommon materials that are fun to try along with some of the things to consider when you're using them. First, there's vegetable-tanned leather, which is safe to use in a laser because the tanning process involves natural materials to preserve the actual hide. This material is great for a handcrafted products like wallets, bracelets, bags, and more. However, one of the downsides of using leather is the smell that it releases when it's cut, which is indescribable. There's also the chart edges where the laser cut all the way through which needs to be cleaned. If you plan to saddle stitch the product together, any pre-cut stitching holes need to be clean so that the saddle doesn't get stuck to the waxed thread. As the leather gets thicker, the ability to cut through it with a laser starts to go away. Eventually, some areas of the leather is going to cut, while others don't because of the different patterns and densities of fibers across the entire hide. If you have the time and patience to learn a little bit of leatherworking and you want to try laser cutting your own patterns for products, it can be an amazing experience and lead to the most unique products that people love. Like this weekend duffel bag that I made for myself. I can't tell you how many comments and offers I've received to purchase this from me. Just to remember that leatherworking takes extra time due to saddle stitching and edge finishing. It's a material that most small shop owners will stay away from. Next, there are different types of food that you can cut or engrave. The most popular choice that I've seen when putting food into a laser cutter is this thick to engraving the surface of something like macaroons because cutting through the food can lead to burning and charring. If you plan to put food into your laser cutter, make sure that your machine is dedicated to edible crafts only. Cutting different materials, then trying to put food into your machine can lead to leftover, dust, and debris from previous projects landing on the surface of the food and making it inedible. I recently started experimenting with different types of food in my laser cutter, which I'll use as an example to show you how I would test a new material that's laser safe, but I've never used before. In this case, we'll be using a slice of bread, which could be any material that you're actually looking to cut. I start by creating a file with multiple vertical lines, each set to a different color. In a laser cutter's app, I changed every line to a slightly different setting. Depending on the material, I usually start with full power and change the speed from a fast setting to a slower one in small increments. Once it's set, I run the test and watch what happens. I'd like to say that I've gotten so good at this that I know what settings will work, but that's not true. I get surprised whenever I finish one of these tests. If the material isn't food and I know I'll be buying more from the same manufacturer, I add labels for the power and speed settings and keep the tests somewhere so that I can reference it in the future. [MUSIC] Something else to keep in mind is when you're ready to cut any common materials in your laser cutter, it should have a proper masking tape applied to the surfaces to protect it from dust, debris, and burns from the laser cutting through the material and bouncing off of the webbing of the crumb tray. Some manufacturers like Glowforge and family-owned businesses that cater to laser crafters will actually sell materials with pre-applied masking tape. If your material doesn't have it, there're a lot of paper masking tapes suppliers out there who make high-tech adhesive ones. To apply it, you simply unroll the masking tape, place it on top of the surface of the material that you're going to be cutting and take a squeegee or in my case, an old plastic card and run it along the surface of the tape to ensure that it's completely adhered to the material. Do this on both sides of the material and remove it when your cut is complete, there should be no air bubbles left. If you're going to be painting your projects or simply cutting wood pieces that you'll be finishing later, you don't need to apply the paper masking tape. You can cut your project and prime and paint as you usually do. If it's a wood project and you plan to finish with stains, oils, and sealers, you can use an orbital saddler with a finished level grit sandpaper and quickly use it to remove any scorches, burns, and debris that's stuck on the surface of the wood. For some projects that focus on engraving photographs or a complex graphics, I usually make a judgment call to remove the paper masking so that I don't need to peel away hundreds of tiny pieces of paper masking tape. Like the time that I engraved the custom map of Buffalo, New York. In this case, you can also leave the paper masking tape, apply a very strong duct tape over all the areas with a tiny paper masking tape and peel it off. It just needs to be a super sticky duct tape for this to work. In this lesson, we talked about common, uncommon, figuring out the right laser settings, some materials to stay away from, and how to protect your materials during the laser cutting and engraving process. Now let's talk about some of the basic design software and apps that will help you create custom projects. 5. Design Software and Apps: Before I get into each of the software and apps that I'd recommend, remember to check out the document that I shared in the resources section of this course, I'll share links to each of these apps to help you find them quicker. A fundamental part of laser cutting is to understand the difference between a vector and an image. In basic terms, a vector is a line on your computer that's drawn by connecting two points. Whatever shapes you draw using vectors can be cut or scored with your laser cutter. For your laser, to know the path that it needs to take to precisely cut a line, it needs to have the vectors drawn and a software that's capable of doing this. An image is something that's made up of different pixels. It's a photograph, a scan or something that was drawn in an app, and saved as a JPEG image. These are usually JPEG and PNG file types, among many others. The images are usually engraved onto a material, and some laser cutter apps have the ability to actually scan, trace, and cut the outline of the image. This is important to remember as we get into some of the basic design software and apps that I recommend, because it'll help us talk about the different types of projects that you can design in them, and how you can do it. One of the easiest apps to learn how to use for laser cutting that also makes the process efficient is Adobe Illustrator. This app is available on both a tablet and a computer, which is fantastic for quickly sketching something by hand, and making final adjustments on a computer. Everything drawn in Illustrator can be done as a vector, a field shape, or both. A laser cutter will read the vector as lines to be cut and scored, and the field shapes as things to engrave. There are two important notes about Illustrator. The first is the cost of the software, which is usually out of reach for people who are just starting out. If this sounds like a big commitment that you're not willing to make right away, you can check out another software that a lot of my laser friends use called the Affinity Designer and CorelDRAW, which has a one-time purchase price, rather than a monthly payments like Adobe products. For its price, features, and functions, Affinity Designer is a big win for people who are just starting out. It works in a similar way to Illustrator, and my friends love it. The second note about Adobe Illustrator and Affinity Designer is that using the tablet version with a pencil is great for people who might not be the best at coming up with graphics on a computer, but instead are great at drawing things by hand. There are some projects where I prefer to draw the overall designs by hand, and make minor adjustments on my computer like this pumpkin outline for a layered Mandala project that I designed. The next software that I would recommend for people moving into more advanced stages of designing laser-cut projects are Computer Aided Design software, also known as CAD. Personally, I use one called Rhinoceros, which I learned back in architecture school, and I've been using ever since. There are so many alternatives out there including CorelCAD, which is made by the same company as CorelDRAW, AutoCAD from Autodesk and many others. The reason why I recommend CAD programs, is because you've got a lot more precision with every line, curve, angle, and shape that you draw. Once you get the hang of typing commands, or finding the tools to draw the vectors in your project, you can move quickly, and get into prototyping more complex three-dimensional projects, like these lamps that I designed in Rhinoceros. The best part is that most of these CAD programs are capable of extruding the shapes that you draw, into 3D blocks that you can rotate, and move into place to check that your designs are working as you intended. Now, the last part of this is, if you aren't interested in designing custom projects, and instead you want to purchase design files, and make them as gifts to sell, you can find a lot of amazing projects from trusted sellers on Etsy, Glowforge Design Catalog if you own a Glowforge, and illustrations from a subscription website like Envato. Finding a trusted seller on Etsy requires reading through reviews, making sure that the photos and design aren't copies from someone else. If you're unsure, sending a question about the product, and seeing if you get a response. If you have any specific design ideas in mind, but you don't know how to make it, try reaching out to a friend of yours who's in a design profession, like a graphic designer, an illustrator, an architect, or an industrial designer, and see if you can pay them to design to file for you. Now that we've gone over the basics of laser cutting, let's get into some of the basic projects to get you started with this craft. 6. Engraving a Photograph: One of the most popular projects for laser crafters to make and sell are photo engravings of family and honestly, a lot of furry friends. People love sending photographs of their cats, dogs, horses, and other animals that they want to recreate in a unique medium. What better way to do that than to engrave the photo right onto a piece of beautiful wood. For these kinds of projects, I found that having a standard template file of the frame to be very helpful in streamlining this entire process especially, if you plan to do this for a lot of people or as a service for your small business. The frame can be as simple as a rectangular cutout with the photo engraved onto the entire surface, or if you want to clean it up a bit, I like having a small half inch border around the entire piece. Sometimes, people will request the names of people or their pet to be engraved onto the frame, which adds a nice personal touch to the product and an additional service that you can charge in your final price. Here's how I design the frames that I use. I go into Adobe Illustrator, click on the "Rectangle" tool, click onto "Screen," and type in the exact dimensions of the overall frame. I repeat this process again, but take an inch off of both the x and y dimensions. Then I use the Align Center tool both vertically and horizontally. Now, you've got a simple and minimal frame. Once I get the photo that I want to engrave like this one of my dog, I use any photo editing software including the one that comes directly on your phone, like you can see me doing here and I modify the photograph. I start by making the photograph black and white. Then I make my way through all of the settings to get as much contrast into photo as possible. It's important to have different shades within the photo because that's how the laser cutter will identify the different areas that need more or less power to make it darker or lighter on the material. When I'm satisfied with the photograph, I import it into my Adobe Illustrator frame file and resize it to fit within the frame. Now, I just need to crop the photo so that I could engrave it. To do that, I left-click on the photo, right-click, go to order and send to back. This places the photo behind all of the lines. Now, I select the line of the inner border, go to the top of the Window to edit. Select Copy, and go up to Edit and click "Paste" in place. With the copied rectangle selected, I hold Shift on my keyboard, left-click on the photograph to select it, right-click and select Make Clipping Mask. The last step is to select the inner rectangular line and change its color so that we can identify it differently in our laser cutters app, where we can change it to a light scoring setting. Now, when we save the file, we can choose to save it as an SVG file type, or in this case, I actually recommend saving this one as a PDF so it embeds the photo and it makes the importing process easier in the next step. Next, we go to our laser cutters app and upload the file. Once the file appears, we can move it around to where we want it to be engraved and cut. I set the thickness of the material that I'm using for this project, which is an eighth of an inch, set the outer line to cut, the inner line to the engraving setting and a photograph to photo engrave. Now, we load our material into the laser cutter and start the process of engraving and cutting this photograph. My recommendation for the type of wood to use for engraving projects is to stick with something lighter like maple and try not to go too much darker than cherry. When you engrave onto the wood, the laser is burning the surface at different levels to get varying shades of brown and black. If the wood is too dark, it can be difficult to see the final image. Once the photo engraving is complete, you get to admire your hard work and either keep it for yourself if it's your photo or pack it up and send it to your customer. People always ask me, how much they should charge for something like this? A price point that I've seen for custom photo engravings at about nine inches by seven inches, sells for a range between $75 and $150. It all depends on your clients, your location, and your brand. Now, let's move into the next simple project that people love, creating graphic engravings. 7. Designing Unique Graphics: Graphics are fun to create and they could also be very simple to make. In this lesson, I'll go over two different ways that you can design and engrave custom graphics for your laser cutter. First, you can use a program like Adobe Illustrator or Affinity Designer. Use the text tool and just look for a font that has the look that you're trying to get for the graphic that you're developing. There are lots of open-source fonts that you can actually find online that range from serif to san serif, and unique ones that look like handwritten notes. You can find fonts that write every word in beautiful script for invitations, signs, and more. Another option for typing out the text that you want to engrave has to make it unique by using the type on path tool in Adobe Illustrator, which will allow you to write words that follow a line or a curve that you've drawn. To do this, you can start by drawing a shape with the pre-made tools. Draw a custom one using a pen tool or import one that you might've drawn in a CAD software. For this example, we'll draw a circle with a four-inch diameter. Use the scissor tool and click on two points to trim it into a semicircle. Now we go to the Text Tool, hold the left-click on it, select Type on path, and click on a line wherever you want the text to start. When you start typing, you'll see the text following the curve. You can get really creative with this feature. For example, you can copy the text, resize it, and make it look like layers of a rainbow where it gets smaller as you go inward and larger as you go outward. If you use the pen tool, you can also start drawing something like the branches of a tree and turn it into text. This could work for messages, inspirational art, and family trees where you make every branch a different name. The second way that you can create graphics is to use a tablet and pen and an app like Procreate where the possibilities of hand-drawn art is limitless. My favorite tool to use is the calligraphy pen, set to script where the lines come out bold and the curves are seamlessly made with the assistance of the app. Once you draw something you like and you finalize it, you just need to export it as a JPEG and import it into your laser cutters app to start engraving it. If you decide that you just want to cut or score the outlines of the graphic, you can bring it into Adobe Illustrator, use the trace function, turn off the infill, and turn on the outline color. Export this as an SVG or PDF file, import it into your laser cutters app, and start the process of scoring or cutting. Now let's move on to the next project where we will be designing and making custom acrylic labels for cake toppers, dessert toppers, plant labels, and also drink stirrers. 8. Designing Acrylic Labels: A simple project to laser cut and give away as gifts or to sell are labels made with acrylic. Some popular ones to make are plant labels that gets staked into the soil of a potted plant or in the garden, drinks stirrers and cake toppers. I'll show you how to design and make one of these by using a drink stirrer as our example. For this project, we'll be using Adobe Illustrator on a computer. Using the line tool, I draw a line vertically down seven inches and increase the thickness of the line until it's about a quarter of an inch wide. I found that adjusting the line stroke to 10 worked for me. Now, we need to switch over to the text tool and write out whatever we want to say at the top of the stirrer. In this case, I'll write Happy New Year and switch the font to my favorite, Helvetica, and use a heavy, bold font so the letters are wide. Next, we need to outline the letters by selecting the text box, going to the top of the window to type, and selecting Create Outlines. At this point, there's a lot of options available for how we can make a custom drink stirrer. For mine, I decided to rotate the letters 90 degrees and move them so that Happy was on the side of the line and New Year was on the other. With the words selected, I make the outlines of the letters black and remove the fill color so that all we see are the shapes of every letter. I select the line, go to the top of the window, click "Object," go to path and outline stroke. I make the outline black and remove the fill colors so we can see the rectangular shape. Now, we just need to move the letters so that the bottom of Happy touches the line and do the same with the top of New Year. Using the scissor tool, I trim the parts of the letters touching the line and delete it. When I'm done with the letters, I'll do the same with a rectangle. I'll speed this part up since it's just repeating the same step over and over again. I'm sure there's another easier way to do this, but this was the first thing that came into my head. With the letters and the rectangle trimmed and the extra lines deleted, I like to clean up the design by joining all of the lines. You can't highlight all of them and join them because it'll connect some of the smaller shapes. Instead, I select them in small areas and join them together by going to Object, Path, Join. You can also just select the lines, hold Control, and press "J." Now we have our drink stirrer design and all we need to do is cut it out of this blue acrylic. One thing I forgot to do here is remove the protective paper masking, which is why you see all the flames. Since it was a fast project to cut, I just let it finish. Once the design was cut, I removed the protective film from the acrylic and the drink stirrer is complete. Now let's move on to the next lesson where I'll show you my process of designing and making a more complex product using a CAD software, so that you can see the potential of what your laser cutter can do. It's going to be a slightly difficult lesson. Don't worry if you can't follow along now. I'll have more courses in the future where I'll go step-by-step and you can follow along there. Just watch the lesson, see how you feel, and see if it's something you can get comfortable doing. Now let's get started. 9. Advanced Project - Home Decor: Designing home decor and furniture is challenging but it's rewarding for any laser cutter owner. These projects are comprised of multiple parts and pieces that are laser cut and assembled to create a larger product. Up to this point, the projects we've gone over are simple products that are engraved and scored or cut and finished. 3D products require more steps and more precision. To design these products, I highly recommend that you learn a CAD software like I mentioned earlier in this course. In this section of the course, I'll briefly go over my steps for designing a 3D product, but I won't go into too much detail since it's a little more advanced than this introductory-level course. I'll have more in the future where I'll actually go step-by-step and you can follow along. My preferred CAD software to use is Rhinoceros. It was programmed for complex and precise modeling of specific objects like yachts, jewelry, architecture, and more. The way that CAD software work is that you can either find and click on specific commands like lines, curves, and shapes, or you can type it into the command bar and press Enter. I was taught to use a software by typing all of the commands that I want to use instead of looking for them so you'll see me typing the commands as we go. For this project, we'll be designing and making a side table and we'll be using Rhinoceros. Let's get started. To design this project, I use a software called Rhinoceros, and I start by drawing the general pieces. This includes the legs of the table, frame, and the top. The overall dimensions for this project will be 19 inches tall and 18 inches square. As I work through the design, I'll figure out what other components I need and add them later. At the top of the screen, you can see my command bar which is where you can see all of the different commands that I'm typing for this project. The command that I'm using the most here is polyline. I'm also using copy and move. Polylines consist of a bunch of points that are connected with these lines that you see appearing on the screen. If I wanted to end it without closing off the entire shape, I could just hit the Enter button. Copy, lets me click on that line or that shape, and copy it anywhere in the screen. The move command, lets me move anything on the screen to a specific area that I want to. When the pieces are drawn, I figure out specific connection details for this project, like slots and tabs that'll attach the legs to the frames. The idea here is that the legs in the frame will include a cutout where a wood piece can slot in and be wood glued to secure both frames in place. What you're seeing here is that I copied the legs of the table and I overlapped it with the top frame. This ensures that all of the slots and tabs that I'm drawing will align for every piece so that when I laser cut them, the tabs will actually fit and slot through all the pieces as it's being designed here. The thickness of the slots and tabs are based on my measurement with digital calipers of the actual material that I'll be using. When I'm satisfied with the design, and location of the slots and tabs in the legs and top frame, I'll select all of them and copy them over so that I have four frames and four legs. The next step is to design all of the end joins so that the frames can overlap at the ends and help us align every piece when we're ready to assemble and glue them together. We'll also be designing the finger joints at the top which is what you're seeing here on the screen. Those finger joints will go into slots in the tabletop so that everything is aligned and held together firmly. You can see here that I'm constantly revising the design of the end joins because I find that there's a better way to do it or that they won't actually align the way that I intended. That's the beauty of designing with precision using a CAD software. One of the commands that you can see me using pretty often here is the trim command which allows me to trim off any excess lines that overlap one another. I'm also intentionally moving all of the pieces so that the joints that should be aligned with any slots are actually aligning and I use that as a reference point so that everything that I'm drawing will actually work when it's laser cut and align with the piece that it should be going into. With these components drawn out, I want to check how precisely the pieces will come together. To do this, I extrude the shapes to the specific thickness of my material and build a 3D model. I place each component where they're intended to go and test the slots and tabs. Building a 3D model is a lot simpler than you might think. The commands that we'll be using here are extrude, move, and rotate. Extrude allows you to pull the piece into the exact thickness that you're looking for. In my case, this is going to be a quarter-inch piece of plywood. I measured that was my digital calipers and I extruded the shapes to that exact dimension. Once I had that, I went into a different view which is the side view, rotated that piece so that it was vertical. Then I went into the top view, rotated every piece that they were in the right orientation, and use the Move command in the 3D view to move every piece into place. This is one of those things that looks a lot harder than it is to actually do. But with enough practice, you'll see how simple this can be, especially when you start developing your own workflow. One area of the design that I felt needed additional support were the legs of the table. From one side, they looked sturdy, but from the other, they looked like they'll fall apart if someone kicks a leg by accident. This prompted me to add in additional leg supports at the bottom of the table to create a sturdier base and allow it to carry more weight. To design the support member pieces at the bottom of the table, you can see that I'm following the same steps as earlier in this project where I'm creating slots and tabs at the bottom of the legs and I'm also designing the bars that'll go across each of them. I'm also designing the finger joints at the ends of those bars so they can slot directly into all of the slots that I'm drawing. Here you can see that I'm constantly working between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional views where I'm designing every piece in two dimensions then I'm extruding them like I did in a 3D modeling part of this lesson. Then I rotate them and put them into place. I do this because I want to make sure that every piece I'm designing are actually going to fit as they're intended to. Here, you can see the value of creating a 3D model because I actually started to realize that I needed one additional support member at the bottom. If I didn't include this in my design, I might have wasted materials by laser cutting and assembling a project that didn't actually work. This is one of the things that I love most about CAD software. Now that the design is complete, I apply paper masking tape to the quarter-inch cedar plywood to protect its surface from scorches and burns. Then I've placed the cedar plywood into my Glowforge and begin the process of laser cutting every piece. When the pieces are cut, I remove the paper masking to reveal the beautiful wood finish and organize every piece for the project. I start the assembly process by aligning the slots of the legs and associated frames. I apply wood glue to the top, sides, and bottom of the tabs and use my rubber hammer to hit them through the frame and leg. Using a damp paper towel, I wipe off any excess wood glue and repeat this process again. With the two legs and frames attached, I assemble the base support pieces separately by gluing the finger joints of the center support to the slots in the side supports. I repeat this process with the top side panels and center support. I place one leg and frame assembly on my table and install the end joints of the support members into the slots of the legs. When the supports are in place, I align the end joints with the frame on the opposite side and glue them into place. Once the wood glue is dry, I turn the assembly, with the top facing upwards, align the joints of the tabletops with the frames, and glue them into place. I apply a natural oil finish to the surfaces of the wood to bring out the natural beauty of the material and to protect it from dirt and debris. That's how I design and make this simple DIY side table with my Glowforge. 10. Concluding Thoughts: I hope you enjoyed this introductory level course to laser cutting. Where we covered the basics of designing files and engraving, scoring, and cutting materials with a laser cutter. There's so many possibilities for products that you can design and make with your laser cutter. Lots of people have created small businesses that focus on cutting and selling custom products. Others, like me, have actually decided to be file designers where they come up with amazing creations and sell their files to others instead of selling physical products. Remember to follow me here on Skillshare, where I'll be sharing my design process for some of my popular products later this year. Since this was an introductory level course for beginners, we didn't get into too much detail for the 3D project that I covered. In future courses, I'll share more information so that you can actually follow along and understand the design process in more detail for these more complex projects. Thanks again for taking this course, and have fun creating something unique.