Hot Air Balloon

9 Dec 2025
lasercut decoration attached svg file gift

While browsing lasercutting designs, I was impressed by this one:

https://3axis.co/laser-cut-hot-air-balloon-3d-wooden-craft-kit-cdr-file/m1d643y7/

Which ended up being a little disappointing in terms of quality: it has a few inconsistencies, irregular colours and some parts are too many, others are missing. As-is, the design is not lasercuttable.

Modifications #

I improved on the following, which makes the svg file (link at the bottom) easier to lasercut and assemble:

count how many parts are needed, remove the overflow.
check symmetries, multiples of a part are perfect copies of eachother
the bow ties had a geometry that crashed the trotec lasercutter firmware (repeatedly), but simplifying the shape removed the problem
triple process: black/greyscale is engraving, red is cutting, blue are lines to “sear” but not fully cut through.
rearrange parts more densely: less material wasted
design some missing parts of the basket and the top flag
(after assembling the one pictured here) add some more simple decorative features

The basket perimeter piece was tricky to assemble. The bending radii are very small and even when lasercutting it in the direction of the plywood grain, it would break at multiple attempts.

Trick #

What solved the problem in the end, was to dunk the wooden piece in some boiling water for a few seconds. The hot water “loosens” the wood fibers enough that they are temporarily bendable. After a minute when it’s cooled enough to touch, bend it carefully into shape (and it shouldn’t break!).

Top view: the circles stabilise the entire top part and should be glued.

Center-inside view, the flames are glued to the floor of the basket.

Try for yourself #

Download the SVG file here.