Laser Cutting a Dinosaur Model

Start by spray painting both sides of three 24" x 24" pieces of wood. If you spray paint the pieces before you cut them, you won't have any paint residue on the cuts.

When you open the three files, you will see the pieces of the dinosaur separated out onto three 24" x 24" pages.

These were setup to work with the 24" x 24" sheets of mdf. If you are working with small pieces of wood, adjust the page size and move the pieces around so that they all fit on the wood.

If you work with a different thickness of wood or resize the pieces to smaller dimensions, you will need to resize the slots so they will fit correctly together.

After the pieces are cut out, it's time to put together the puzzle!

Start by attaching the tail piece to the hip, then the hip to the back. Next attach the three pieces that make up the head. Use the diagram to the right to help identify each piece.

Next, put together the legs and the rest of the hip pieces, attaching them to the already assembled portion of the dinosaur.

For the tail vertebrae, arrange each of the eight pieces from smallest to largest. The smallest piece goes into the slot at the far end of the tail, while the largest piece goes in the slot closest to the legs.

When you have the tail finished, you can add the back vertebrae. There are six pieces that we will arrange from smallest to largest with the largest piece inserted in the slot closest to the legs and the smallest nearest the head.

The third vertebrae from the head should be the piece pictured in the blue box to the right. You'll notice that this piece has two additional slots to place the arms.

Your T-Rex is complete! Have fun with this puzzle and try different ways to decorate the dinosaur with different colors. Have fun!