Making Halloween Luminary Boxes
Introduction: Making Halloween Luminary Boxes
In this Instructable, I'll show you how I made a Halloween-themed luminary box on the laser cutter at my local maker space. While I love using the laser every chance I get, this same principal could be done with any pre-made wooden box or a hand-cut or scroll-saw cut design, so don't let your lack of access to a laser stop you from making one of these!
If you'd rather watch a build video before jumping into the Instructable, be sure to watch the full video above. If you like it, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel so I know this is the type of project people enjoy learning how to make themselves so that I can make more videos like it in the future! I've included links below to the tools and materials I used, but feel free to adapt what you learn here to build your own luminary!
Supplies
* 1/4 inch Plywood
* Rustic Orange Spray Paint
* Golden Sunset Yellow Spray Paint
* Tightbond II Wood Glue
* Wood Clamps
Step 1: Gather Materials and Supplies
In the previous step, I described the supplies you'll need to build and set up your luminaries, so now let’s talk about what options you have for constructing your box and cutting out the jack-o’lantern design if you don't have access to a laser cutter. As I indicated above, I used the laser cutter at my local maker space to cut the plywood, using a box-generator tool online to generate the cut file of the box itself. If you don’t have access to a laser cutter, here are some ideas:
1. Premade Box: Use a pre-made wooden box of any given size. You’ll need to paint the inside carefully since it’s already constructed, but this is a very easy way to go!
2. Traditional Woodworking Tools: Use the laser-cutter SVG file (described later on) as a template to create finger joints using traditional woodworking techniques or a table saw jig.
3. Use Butt Joints. Similar to the previous option, this involves constructing your own box, but rather than worrying about finger joints, just glue, nail, or screw the pieces of the box together. 644
This box will not hold any weight, so the normal necessity for finger joints is not there.
Decide which option is right for you, but in either case, cutting the face onto your box will most successfully be done with either a scroll saw or a coping saw. If you’re very patient, a jigsaw can also be used, but it’s harder to make tight turns with a jigsaw.
Step 2: Create Your Box Template
The inspiration for this project came from a decoration I recall seeing in the Halloween aisle when I was a kid. They were effectively paper lunch bags, but orange, with pumpkin faces cut into the bag or printed on the bag. They came with tea light candles and you were supposed to put them on your walkway with sand or rocks inside them to help weigh them down. I always liked the idea of the sidewalk up to the house lined with these, but the practical execution always had me wary of a fire, since a simple gust of wind could make them collapse in on themselves.
To start our more-sturdy version, we'll use the dimensions of a real-world paper lunch sack, as the idea is for these to be a nod to the original paper bags. Those measurements are approximately 5.75" wide x 9.5" tall by 3.5" deep. With those measurements at the ready, we can take to this super handy laser-cut box generator tool I stumbled upon. It’s awesome – all you do is enter your box dimensions, tell it how thick the material is that you’ll be cutting it out of, tweak a few other settings, and boom, it generates a perfect vector cut file with all the finger joints dialed in exactly.
You can also enter a value for kerf compensation, which you may need to play with if you determine your joints are too tight or too loose. This is entirely dependent on the laser you’re using and it’s beam size, but in general, a value of 0.002 or so has worked for me. Just experiment a bit; it’s the best way to learn!
Step 3: Modify SVG With Decorative Features
Exporting our generated box gives us an SVG file, which is a super common software-agnostic vector format that can be opened by most vector tools such as Inkscape or the like. Other laser software may want the DXF file, which is also an option in the box generator, but Adobe Illustrator is my weapon of choice. 438