Laser-Cut Egg Carton Sprouter

Mary has been using Styrofoam egg cartons to sprout seeds for this year’s garden veggies:

I looked at those artisanal holes and offered to make sprouters with precisely calibrated laser-cut holes.

After the laughter died down, this happened:

Each egg compartment has a drainage hole in the bottom:

The LightBurn layout has four shapes in three virtual arrays:

• Drain holes: 3 mm circle, 6×3 array
• Top vents: 25×15 mm oval, 2×1 array
• Side vents: concentric 3×4 & 2×3 mm ovals, 2×4 array

Which looks like this:

Because this isn’t a high-precision operation, I align the patterns to the carton using the camera:

The two halves of the unfolded carton aren’t the same height, which means the top and bottom patterns have different focus levels and must be cut in two operations.

The laughter made it totally worthwhile.