Last Minute Christmas Gift, Paper Boomerang, Using Laser Cutter or Vinyl Cutter

Make a Christmas paper boomerang that is safe to use in the house. They can be made in minutes depending on the speed of your laser or vinyl/paper cutter.

Use a laser cutter or vinyl cutter (drag knife) to make these and then glue them together. I used my Thingiverse.com customizable inifinity fractal leaves from eight years ago to design a custom flyer. To be honest I have updated the leaf generator but I just haven't added it to Thingiverse yet.

1. Card Stock: Almost any will do but I used 64lb cardstock from an office supply store. Recycling non-corrugated cardboard would work as well as long as your laser cutter or vinyl cutter (drag knife) can cut through it, and you can glue it other pieces. The design is for 8.5 by 11 but you can use Inkscape to scale if needed.
2. Glue or Glue stick. What ever glue will stick to the material you cut.
3. Vinyl Cutter or Drag Knife (Cricut/Silhouette) You will not want to cut these by hand. There are many details.
4. Maybe the pick set that came with your Vinyl cutter. You know there is always some clean-up/weeding needed.

I used a set of three color pieces of cardstock. Use whatever paper you have. Scrapbook paper works well. Being a bit heavier in weight should not be an issue. I will explain this later. The two Inkscape SVG files below are ready for many laser cutters or vinyl cutters but you make have to adjust the color or stroke thickness to get a vector cut on some laser systems.

If you have a laser cutter you can stack a number of sheets of paper together to cut a number of flyers in one pass. At the Grand Junction Makerspace we have a Laser which will do this easily. If your laser has flashing marks on the back, use a spare bit of paper on the bottom to reduce flashing marks.

Glue the base to the next largest shape. Get the base (the ones without the "fringes") and the next size down with the "fringe" and glue them together. I do this by flipping the smaller one over putting glue or using a glue stick on the back. Then sticking to the larger layer and lining up the front edge, the one without the fringe.

Repeat this until all the layers you want are glued together doing your best to line up the less "fringy" edge.

Try your best to have the boomerang lay flat, but don't worry if is starts to curve toward the "fringy' side, you will be adding some of that curve to make adjustments.

Adjust curve

To adjust the flight of the boomerang bend the flyer after it dries. Usually you have to bend toward the side with the fringe layers on top, but bending the other way will work as well. You are looking to make the shape of all three wings similar and have a slight curve.

If your boomerang does not return to your when thrown add a bit more curve. If it circles too tight try to flatten it a bit. These boomerangs often fly well the first time but you can't hurt it adjusting it a bit.

Simplify

If you want to simplify and make the flyer more "gentle", don't add all the layers. If you use heavier card stock or non-corrugated cardboard you make want to one use only 1 or 2 layers on top of the base.

Not attaching a base makes the flyer slow down spinning faster. Depending on the weight it will gently fall to the ground.

Using this design I had good flyers with just two layers but the most satisfying flyers had all four.

Scaling

If you want to make smaller or larger flyers you can take the Inkscape file below and scale all four layers at once. Then separate them into individual files for cutting.

The fringes in the second largest layer are the smallest and may work on your laser or vinyl cutter. You can always just not add that layer and start with the next largest.