Laser Cutter / Vinyl Cutter "Leaf" Me Alone! - The Cardboard Mood Plant I was requested to design and build a carboard press-fit kit and thus the mood plant was born. The idea behind this was to enable the user to have a plant within his workspace that did not require waterning, trimming or similar (manaul labour). The number of leaves and their organization would reflect the users mood. Few or no leaves would signify that the user is in an "unhappy" mood, so that co-workers would either try to cheer him up, or leave (leaf) him be. More leaves would express a cheerfull and happy disposition. Another use I though of was to take the plany in my suitcase to depressing hotels I would sleep in, on business trips. My plant was sure enough to light any room and create a "home away from home". I learned a lot of new things during this assignment. The first one was Autocad. I decided to use Autocad because it would enable me to manipulate blocks easily and would also enable me to have control of the offsets. I created a short 1-page manual to Autocad which you can find here. Another 2 importat lessons I learned: 1) Use the laser cutter offset in order for your grooves to be exact. If you do not, the laser cutter will cut your grooves wider and you will end up with a very loose fit. 2) Do not strech or shrink your design without taking into acount the groove sizes. once you strech, the grooves will be modified as well and again - you will end up with a loose fit.   Initial Test run and callibration My first design was done in order to test the full process of manufacturing from using the design software up until the laser cutter "made" my design.