The other day I was out biking and saw my friend David updating one of the letter boards that we have at several entrances to our subdivision. I couldn’t help but notice that the two plant trays he was using for letter storage were… um… just a bit melty.
Apparently, just leaving them in the sun (in the car? house?) had taken a toll on the flimsy plastic trays, but since they were otherwise just about perfect for the job, oh, well. There aren’t many options for 5x7, 35-bay trays available. Well, then, why not just quickly bike home, grab a tape measure, and rush back to get some reference measurements while he was still working, eh?
So, yesterday, while I sat around relaxing on my day off, I had my big CO2 cutting 9.25mm plywood to make some much improved trays (with a 5mm plywood lid). They’re much more robust, impervious to melting, and even have feet to hold the stack in place.
Naturally, I engraved the letter labels using my CO2 galvo while the other laser was cutting, and I even collected the numerals in one corner to improve the layout. (9 is just upside-down 6, and O is used for zero, in case you look closely and wonder.) I think they turned out well enough for a utility project, and definitely more robust than a couple partially melted plant trays.
