Best Laser Cutting HACK to Save TIME and MATERIALS

[Music] Kim. Kim. Kim. Look. It's not working. 90 minutes. One piece falls out. This is six passes. It's not working. It's not working. It's not working. Stop volunteering for stuff. Stop volunteering. [Music] >> What is up? Welcome back. >> Do you like to make money? >> So do we. >> But we don't this week. We're not making any money this week. It's all volunteer work thanks to Mother Teresa. >> Our daughter is a senior in high school. She's in the band and we volunteered to do the band prop this year. It's her last year. So if anyone's going to do it, it's going to be us. We actually own a craft studio. So of course we're going to volunteer to do the band prop. >> I think these band props are beyond craft studio stuff, though. These things are huge. Last year's was huge. >> Yeah, I was going to say last year you volunteered to do the bird cage and you pulled off like a 12ft tall bird cage, >> 13 foot >> that held students, one to two students and moved across the field. So this year we're asked to make some stages just some square boxes. How hard can it be? So we started with some sketches from the band leader shared with us some specs of what he's thinking for the show this year. >> Big dreams. big dreams. >> So, give us a little drawing here of of what what's on this paper because it's a little hard to see here in the grid paper. So, share with them what we interpreted from this paper. >> He wants a 4ft tall stage that's 4tx 4t with stairs coming down on all sides. Now, we talked them down to two sides. So, it's a 4ft tall stage with stairs on both sides. Then he wanted a twoft x two ft x two ft stage with stairs going up to it. Another twoft x two foot x two foot stage with stairs going up to it. A 3x5x 1 ft tall stage with ramps on either side so they could walk over like a rainbow kind of thing. I don't know. That's a big dreams. Big dreams. >> But and so we started with this and and it seems it seems relatively doable. >> Not too bad. >> We're already concerned with four feet. That seems a little bit high. >> I don't think he knows what 4 feet is. >> Well, he may, but the football field is big. And so when you get a prop this size out there, suddenly if you're way up high in the stands, 4 foot doesn't look so big. >> Doesn't look like 4 foot. >> And this the other requirement that came a little bit after it's in the text on here. >> So I thought this wasn't bad. We'll just get some 2x4s, some plywood, throw these together. Not bad at all. >> And then we got another requirement. It needs to be portable. Of course, it needs to be portable. They're taking it with them. >> Needs to break down and fit inside the same little trailer that all of the band equipment does. >> So, quickly, we started brainstorming some ideas on how we might make this portable. >> And I had a brain blast. I was like, we'll just use like the display type of setup that we use for the door corners and then some of the mechanisms that I built for the rotating display. We'll just use that type of stuff, but we'll do it at a half inch. Boom. They can assemble it on the field. >> Garrett created a list of supplies that we were going to need for this project. After we did our whole design, we knew we needed 17 sheets of 1/2-in ply. We were going to use some brackets, some screws, and the band mom went out to the local hardware store and they donated all of the supplies needed for this project, which is super generous and awesome. The band didn't have to pay for any of the supplies. >> But, >> however, >> we said half inch plywood. So, that hardware store gave us the cheapest halfinch plywood they have. >> Of course they would. Of course they would. >> It was so warpy. It was full of glue pockets. There's There's like center pieces missing. This was horrible. When we unbanded it, that stuff tried to taco immediately. >> Yeah, definitely taco. This definitely look like a halfpipe like right away which gave me an idea. So we Tanner and I took a little side trip and we built the new ramp and then back over here to the bam prop. >> And the funny thing is after you pulled the first sheet off Yes. It tacoed. Then you pulled another sheet off and then two sheets below it. >> I washed it taco. >> Yes. Yes. >> It was like >> every sheet. So we knew right then this was going to be an issue. We were going to have to add some weights to the laser and see what we could do. Hopefully, we were gonna We let it sit on the ground for two days. >> Two days. Tried to cut it down to the size of the pieces that we needed so it would be even less warpy. >> We put a 4 in lens inside the laser to try to set it even further off of the materials so we wouldn't have to keep adjusting it. >> And we started making our cuts. And what did we find? Even the Eon 100 W laser would not cut through this 1/2-in plywood. We knew it was going to be a challenge with the warpingness, but we didn't know it was going to burn and char so bad. >> Uh, this is six passes. This is six passes, and I still didn't get through in most of the places. >> It It was just a mess. And every time we tried to pop it out, it splintered. You could see it was charring, causing fire on the back. >> I tried to cut this piece out with the jigsaw to get it, but >> yeah, he had to use the saw for one of them. >> It was a mess. The front of this thing is a is a mess as well. >> Well, look at the giant freaking pockets in this thing. Look at giant pockets. The knots, the glue. It's I This is why I hate volunteering. Right about the time I was ready to give up and call it and tell them that they're going to have to find somebody else to build it. >> Well, we had already tried the jigsaw and it was splintering and it was super slow and there were a lot of pieces that needed to be cut. and it was just not really going to be a viable option. >> Kim had an idea. She's like, "Just flip it over. >> We cut it from the back side." >> Yeah. Cut the front side. >> Flip it over and cut the back side. I'm like, "How am I ever going to line that up?" And she's just like, "Use the print and cut feature." >> Like, "That is genius." So, what we ended up doing is we would add registration marks to our first cut and we run the registration marks two or three times until it would get through enough that we'd be able to see it on the back side. >> Yes, we just needed to see where the crosshairs met on the back side of that board. It didn't have to cut all the way through. I just needed to see it cut through enough that I could use it as a registration mark. Then we would flip the board, go back to LightBird, we would flip the design, and then line up those same registration marks using the print and cut and run it on the back side. And that way we were doing one pass in the front and one pass in the back. It took way less time than the six passes just going through the front. >> That is just that was just a huge timesaver and and actually project saver. >> Project saver. We weren't sure how we were going to give them what they wanted in the design that we had created using the laser cut pieces so that it was easy assemble, easy apart, no tools, super light. If we weren't able to actually cut them on the laser. So once we were able to cut one pass on top, one pass on bottom, it was a breeze. Everything else went perfect because we lost like two days right up front trying to unwarp the wood and get through it in a couple of passes. We lost a lot of time and we were down to the wire. >> We had to spend the entire weekend just constantly changing out boards because we knew all 17 sheets needed to be cut. We basically Well, I guess we had wasted a couple sheets. >> We wasted a couple sheets. >> So, at least 15 sheets of plywood. do this. I gave us two sheets for buffer and those two sheets were gone day one and two trying to get through. So there was no more time for mistakes unless it was going to come out of my pocket. >> It was all 15 sheets, half a sheet at a time and two two cuts for each one of them. And so it was basically running all day Saturday, all day Sunday. And we thought we would finish up first thing Monday, but we didn't. >> We didn't. >> It was all day Monday. They left Monday late night and >> and we said, "Well, >> I have two more cuts. I'll do them in the morning. >> We'll finish Tuesday morning. No problem. We'll finish Tuesday morning." >> Well, they called to pick it up. And I was still running the last cut, the front side, and they said, "We're on our way." And I was like, "Okay, it finished up about the same time they pulled up. They got it fresh off the laser. I didn't even get to assemble that last piece to see if it fit. We had the big ones assembled, but that last little bit we we didn't even we just we knew it would work. We were confident. >> It's not a real Kim and Garrett project unless the deadline and the delivery time are the exact same. >> It's kind of how it was. We did attend the first practice with the band prop and after we saw the band director on the 4oot stage and u a couple of the other kids marching across, we decided it was definitely going to need some additional supports. As soon as I saw the one kid on the 4ft stage give it a little jump. I was like, "Oh, I better add a couple of more supports. I wasn't expecting them to jump around on it." >> And last year's van mom warned us this thing gets beat up. So, we knew for some of the tab supports as we did the little tab inserts that they were going to need some sort of a support. Well, even us setting it up, we broke the first one. >> Broke the first tab. >> So, we had to cut a little bit. I went back in and I added some metal L brackets that laid flat against it and I was going to use those to reinforce the tabs. >> They're like hurricane ties and they were great tab supports so that those tabs wouldn't break. That was uh pretty smart to add those on there. And then the kids got to spray paint it, decorate it, and it looked great for the first game. We got to see them try it. Uh our daughter, if you're looking at the band stage, she's on those stairs. She's one of the saxophone players. They got to dance. She had her own little like solo part and it was great to see them use it and see it used as planned. >> As planned. Yeah. And you were right. It once I mean it looked huge inside the warehouse here, but once it got on the field, I was like, "Oh, those do look tiny." because well you spend all this time and it filled up like the warehouse area where we had everything set up. >> I couldn't wait to get rid of it because we had no room. I couldn't move in the inside the warehouse. >> But out there on the field suddenly >> just shrank real quick. >> Yes. Yeah. >> But it assembled great. It travels well. The kids are able to assemble it in just a couple of minutes. >> Well, we found out ultimately they don't take it apart all the way like we design Garrett designed it so it breaks down completely flat. It's a small pile. Ultimately, I don't think they take the two-foot stages apart. They take the four foot stage apart. >> Big stuff. >> And they're not taking the stairs apart. They leave those assembled, too. But that's okay. Half of it is disassembled, half of it is assembled. It makes easy setup for them. And it's still light and easy to carry. >> It is. And it was definitely easier than trying to figure out how to make a bird cage. So, >> I don't know this. I don't know that I could have come up with the bird cage design. I'm not sure I could have come up with what you've fashioned for these stages and to make them so horrible. >> Came out great. I'm happy with it. And I'm really glad that I learned how to deal with that stubborn halfinch ply. >> Hopefully, if you've gotten nothing else out of this video, you learned that if you need to cut some thick plywood, you can use registration marks, flip that over, and cut from the backside. I got so many plans now for ramps for outback where I can use those registration marks to try to get through 3/4 inch. So, >> and he was excited once we got done and delivered this now. He said, "I've got so many ideas of different craft show um st >> display things that I can make." Because of how I had to >> come up with ways to keep the band props together and break them down. I was like, "Oh, I can use these for little standers. I could use these for the little platforms." I have so many ideas of how to use those things that I've learned from making the band prop for making more display things. Well, I'm about out of time. I got to go watch our kid play in the band. You got to go figure out how to cut some halfinch plywood. And a big thanks to the Make It Mafia. We love you guys. That is the best way to support this channel. I mean, I can't say enough about that crew right there. I They are great that I can't wait to go on another cruise and meet all my friends.