Laser Cut Paper Eiffel Tower – Mini sized!
One of our most interesting pieces so far has been the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, the major limitation has always been production time. On our current equipment, each one takes about 45 minutes to cut, and another 30 minutes to assemble. It’s a great hero piece – beautiful, elegant and technical – but a pain to produce. So we asked ourselves the question, could it be simplified?
T
he detail work on the large one was already very close to the limits of the paper. Simply scaling it down was not a viable option. We were also looking for something a little simpler, without the observation decks. So, when a little bit of extra time finally presented itself, Michael stripped out some of the most delicate details, and repatterned the rest so that it could be cut in a smaller footprint. Rather than cutting external observation decks, we integrated the visual elements into the body of the tower, and since we want to use this as a promo piece, added our logo on one face.
The end result is approximately 1/2 the size of the original, and takes a little bit less than half as long to cut. They require no folding or scoring, assemble very quickly, and are simple enough that most people should be able to do it themselves without too much frustration. All in all, we are extremely pleased with the outcome. It’s fast enough, and simple enough that we can use it as a good quality leave behind and branding piece and still elegant enough that it’s not likely to get tossed out.
We are looking into volume production for both the large and the small towers. If all goes well, and we have enough demand, we hope to make the small ones available for sale in the $12-$15 range and a slightly redesigned large one in the $30-$35 range. If you are interested, please let us know so we can gauge real interest, and we’ll keep you appraised.
