Espresso Station

The Tools

• 60 watt CO2 laser
• rubber bands
• Fusion360
• Lightburn

The Materials

• 5mm birch plywood
• wood glue
• sandpaper

The Build

The main body with mini handles for easy lifting, and a small wall around the edge

The empty space will have a drawer that slides in and out for main storage of tea bags, supplies, etc.

Draw with openings on both sides

I designed the drawer with a 2mm tolerance on all sides and found out that was way too much. I should have done 1mm or less. I put the hole handes on both sides to allow for air to escape because I assumed it would be a tight fit.

My trusty 60 watt CO2 laser

This is my first project with birch plywood. I did NOT know that the middle layers of the plywood were not 100% filled. Surprisingly, this 5mm birch cut much easier than 6.3mm MDF.

Rubber bands and wood glue

Putting together the pieces was messy. I used steel wool to brush off the ash from the laser cuts, but it still got everywhere.

Wood dried and cleaned

I tried to sand off the dirty ash, but found out that a damp cloth worked even better to clean up all the dirty ash from the surface.

Finished product

I engraved a little coffee logo on the front just for fun. In retrospect, the design is much too long, I could have made it a little more compact.

Mistakes

• top-front piece was designed with no interlocking joint and relies entirely on glue
• the 2mm gap tolerance for the drawer is way too much
• tried to sand off ash instead of wiping it down
• design too long, need to shorten it
• found out i added tolerance to BOTH pieces, doubling up on the gap
• need to engrage the logo a bit darker next time
• need to round off the fillet on the handles more to match the drawer handle

Updates

Redid the design to make it shorter, also fixed the front top piece so that it interlocks properly. I also burned the espresso logo in the front darker and rounded off the fillets.

More reasonable looking