Laser Cutter Projects

 

The school is very fortunate to have a large industrial scale laser cutter at school for the students to use for their designs and creations.

We currently have an AEON Laser Free Standing Laser Cutter which the school community purchased for the students to use.

You can view some of the projects that have been created by using this machinery by using the 'search' bar on the right hand side, and using the 'laser cutter' tag, or you can click on some of the following examples and links below.

Our students are using free software to help them with the creation process and laptops to design the projects - primarily Sketch Up.

A summary of our Market Day 2023 Laser Cut projects can be located here.   This is when our local community was invited to see products produced by our students who run a small business.   The design ideas ranged from inspiration that they created a project from scratch to using ideas online to deconstruct or break down a process or item to unlock the secret to its making.   The laser cutter was heavily involved in the process such as shown left.

We have detailed a significant number of these ideas and processes on this blog and there is a full video of the event located on the Market Day tab.

We encourage our students to be innovative using technology when possible in ways to help them interact with the wider community.   One example of this is we encourage students to utilise the technology to run small scale hobby businesses.   In the examples using the laser cutter listed on this blog a student in 2024 is using the technology to produce a range of ear rings which she is then packaging and selling in the community.   She is designing the items in her own time, using the school technology to manufacture them and keeping accountable by paying for the use of the technology and consumables. 

You can follow her progress and ideas for this here

We also have had our students use the laser cutter for projects such as laser engraving on tiles, creating display stands, art projects involving the use of the laser cutter, wall stands for plant holders,  coasters for drinks, creating actual working stamps by using the laser cutter to cut commercial rubber and other projects.

Our senior students also have one day a week of DPE (which is called tech or technology in some New Zealand Schools).   Our senior students have a rotation which involves a laser cut project each year which is a significant undertaking - in the example shown left the students spent the six week block working on producing a blue tooth music player and radio.  The student associated with this project took the design a step further, instead of using the laser cutter to maker a traditional box to house the speakers he made the decision to include an AT-AT from Star Wars as the basis for his designs.  You can see the information and details on this project here.

This chest (shown left) came as a result of the school DPE program.  This chest is a considerable effort that requires significant input and has a number of parts and work.   You can read the details and information about the project by clicking on the link here.

We have another project that has been featured on the blog which is a specific look at storage boxes.   A senior student starting with a weekly project is going to complete a range of laser cut projects, which will be detailed on this blog.

The first of which is the skeleton storage box, which was a featured item as part of 2023 School Market Day.

The box measures 80mm by 80mm and is 80mm high.   The laser cutting part of the project takes five minutes to complete.  Details of the project can be viewed here.

Our senior students have a day a week to complete DPE projects (which are tech or technology in some schools in New Zealand.   One completed project which was created by following instructional videos created by a teacher (by a senior student) was then cut out by our laser cutter and then glued together using wood glue.

The project is detailed on a post here.

One of the senior students decided to use the laser cutter to independently design and create a photo frame which was layered with a series of borders to create depth.   Further decorations were designed for the edging.   The project was then wood glued to complete it.    Details of this short but effective project can be viewed here.