Laser cutting Apple Pencil case

I hope to design a pencil case, especially for my Apple Pencil. I need my pencil for school every day. I used to put it directly in my bag, but I found that it is easy to lose the pencil's cap, and it has some scratches on it. To solve this problem, I decided to design a pencil case for my apple pencil.

It is the mood board for my pencil case design.

Based on my mood board, I started drawing some plan for the paper model. Then, I chose four possible options to make an actual paper model.

I used some materials for making models: a pencil, a rule, a scissor, a scotch tape, glue and some used paper.

Those are my accurate models made on paper.

Finally, I chose to modify the first model (cuboid). I thought it might be more practical to make it slightly more rectangular so that I might be able to put an extra pen in there. Also, it will not cost too much position, and it can well-protected a pencil.

Now the first thing to do is to measure the pencil, and it's about 17.5 centimetres.

Then I plan to leave a 1-centimetre gap on each end.

I started making it in Adobe Illustrator. At first, I used a 1 mm line to draw to see the line.

It is my final work with the scales. I decided to make the length 19.5 cm to have a 2 cm gap to put some soft thing to protect the pencil nip. The 2.5 cm width is available to put one apple pencil and one pen in it.

Finally, it is ready for laser cutting.

Before I print, I chose MDF as the materials but not the cardboard. The reason is MDF is hard to both flex or crack. Also, it's surface is very smooth, which would not break my pencil and my bag ( MDF vs Plywood, n.d.)

It was finished cutting and have not combined. When I first tried to fit them together, I had a problem: the snap points on all sides were the same size (3mm), making it very difficult to work them together tightly.

Finally, I used a little hammer to hammer them tight. It is the top view of the pencil case. I printed my name on it.

We can see three hollows circles. I made them because they can help me quickly see if the pencil in the case. Therefore, I do not need to open it to check.

On the right side, I made a hole to tie a rope as a handle to be open more easily.

Finally, my pencil case works well in my bag now.

After I used it, I found that there were some things I wanted to improv. The first thing is to paint a waterproof cover on it. Because MDF is a non-waterproof material, it is too elementary to stain. Second, I found I should have some cotton at the bottom, so that the stump of a pencil can be protected better.

Overall, I would say that this design is successful because it achieves what I initially set out to do with it. My Apple Pencil doesn't lie around in my bag, and it's easier to find now. Also, the cap will never fall off, and it helps. Other objects in my bag will never scratch the pen.

Reference:

George Hill, (n.d.). MDF vs Plywood. https://georgehill-timber.co.uk/blog/mdf-vs-plywood-for-projects/