Laser Cut Eiffel Tower: Design Update 6 – First Platform Done!

As you can see, the laser cut Eiffel Tower I’m working on and documenting here on CNCKing.com‘s blog is coming together nicely. Although it seems very complicated – what you see here is made-up of only 19 pieces! I try to design my models to be as straight forward using as few pieces as possible. In this case, I don’t care about the cutting costs, nor do most hobby cutters but what they do want is something that’s “easy” to assemble. Do keep in mind that all this complexity DOES come at a cost, a real laser cutting costs thanks to all the inner cuttings you see on these pieces!

So when designing a model, you have to almost decide from the get-go where your costs will come from, whether that’s laser time, assembling time or even who you are designing the model for. Although this laser cut Eiffel Tower looks simple to build for any kid, because of all the inner cuttings, it’s very fragile so I know that people buying this will most likely use it to start a fire in their fire pit in the back yard or put it on a shelf to collect dust.

I do believe the hardest part of this laser cut Eiffel Tower is finished though, that was a wicked amount of figuring-out to get to this point so a straight 90 degree inner elevator shaft with a slightly leaning cage is child’s play. In my next design session, I’m hoping to have this platform completely done, I need to add another layer above the one you see here that overhangs by 4-8mm on all sides which will contain the walkway along with a small roof and small details that will add a lot of depth to this (my wooden) Eiffel Tower.

Throughout the design process, I usually fix big visual gaffs but little ones I let pass until the model is more complete – for example, I’m not sure if I like or dislike the laser lines following the bottom of the platform – I can easily “hide” them in between the vertical slots but that would cause other potential problems for somebody assembling it. In my world, this Eiffel Tower is built using EXACTLY 4mm thick plywood which isn’t true in the real one. Most people forget to scale a model up or down based on the wood thickness they are going to cut their model of. For instance, if your wood is actually 4.4mm and not 4mm (this is why digital calipers are a MUST), might be best to scale the entire plans by 10% then you get a snug fit just like my model. 0.4 mm may sound insignificant, but as mentioned previously, that quickly compounds itself as you have more and more interlocking pieces.