How to make a wall-mounted magazine rack using a laser cutter.

These are instructions for making a simple seven-slotted magazine rack using a laser cutter and some glue. You will need access to a laser cutter (I used TechShop's), approximately 4' x 4' of 1/4" thick material and some appropriate adhesive for your material. The design can be easily modified to add whatever design you'd like on each slot and one could add or remove slots as well. I used Autodesk's AutoCAD to create the files at TechShop in Menlo Park, CA, but any vector-based graphics program should work. I also used the laser cutter at TechShop to cut out the pieces. If you're interested in TechShop it's a DIY membership-based workshop, you can get more info at www.techshop.ws

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Step 1: Cut.

The first step is to cut out the necessary pieces using a laser cutter. You can use whatever material you'd like, as long as it can be laser cut and glued together reasonably. I used 1/4" russian birch plywood, and I used the 60W Epilog machine at TechShop which has a 24" x 18" bed, so the files I attached are set up accordingly. It took a little over an hour to cut everything out, but that time will vary depending on the material and machine you're using. There are three attached files: top half.eps, bottom half.eps, and front covers.eps. You will need to print one copy of top_half.eps, one copy of bottom_half.eps, and two copies of front_covers.eps.

(Note: the "front covers.eps" file does not include the TechShop gear vectors that you see in the pictures, I added those as this particular rack was headed for the front desk at TechShop. This is the perfect place to add the design of your choice.)

(Another note: The layout picture only shows 6 of the 7 front covers required, and 6 of the 7 corresponding bottom pieces.)