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Description
This is my 'Mark II' version of my business card holder , made using laser cut MDF.

This time I tried a different approach and built up the shape in slices. Each piece has several holes cut into it through which small strips are inserted to provide a framework to hold the piece together.
The 'end caps' have similar holes etched into their reverse faces, allowing the ends of the strips to slot in without showing on the outside. This configuration is strong enough to stand on its own without any adhesive to hold it together, unlike my previous attempt.

This approach sacrifices the ability to etch words and images into the front and back faces but allows for much more interesting and smooth shapes to be produced.

I used Illustrator CS4 to create and cut the design, but with a bit more time and some 3D software I could potentially produce much more complex shapes using the slicing method.

It's a bit rough around the edges still, the pieces don't align as smoothly as they should.. when I have the time, I'm going to align and glue each piece properly, then sand the whole thing down.

I am also thinking about trying this with acrylic, as I have heard there is a type of adhesive that can fuse acrylic pieces together.. if so, I can build any shape out of a number of slices and then fuse it into one.. should be interesting to see how that goes xD

IMPORTANT INFO:
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It's made out of 11 slices of 9mm MDF and 2 slices of 6mm MDF for the end pieces, as well as several smaller strips of 6mm used as support rods to hold the whole thing together

No exact measurements yet, I'll add them soon.

Like the Mark I, it has 4 'steps' of varying height to raise the cards up to various levels for display and access purposes.
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See my first attempt here:

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Some of my other laser cut work:

Description
This is my 'Mark II' version of my business card holder , made using laser cut MDF.

This time I tried a different approach and built up the shape in slices. Each piece has several holes cut into it through which small strips are inserted to provide a framework to hold the piece together.
The 'end caps' have similar holes etched into their reverse faces, allowing the ends of the strips to slot in without showing on the outside. This configuration is strong enough to stand on its own without any adhesive to hold it together, unlike my previous attempt.

This approach sacrifices the ability to etch words and images into the front and back faces but allows for much more interesting and smooth shapes to be produced.

I used Illustrator CS4 to create and cut the design, but with a bit more time and some 3D software I could potentially produce much more complex shapes using the slicing method.

It's a bit rough around the edges still, the pieces don't align as smoothly as they should.. when I have the time, I'm going to align and glue each piece properly, then sand the whole thing down.

I am also thinking about trying this with acrylic, as I have heard there is a type of adhesive that can fuse acrylic pieces together.. if so, I can build any shape out of a number of slices and then fuse it into one.. should be interesting to see how that goes xD

IMPORTANT INFO:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's made out of 11 slices of 9mm MDF and 2 slices of 6mm MDF for the end pieces, as well as several smaller strips of 6mm used as support rods to hold the whole thing together

No exact measurements yet, I'll add them soon.

Like the Mark I, it has 4 'steps' of varying height to raise the cards up to various levels for display and access purposes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See my first attempt here:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some of my other laser cut work: