Fully 3D Printed 4-Segment Configurable Storage Box With Hinged Lid and Clasp

Edit 2023-02-18 - 4-Segment_Configurable_BoxV01.01.f3d

• Fixed the fillet to the top of the lid where it disappeared when the number of clasps/hinges were changed.
• Added a fillet to the underside of the hinge bar so it opens and closes a lot smoother.
• Reduced Hinge_Tolerance_Pin from 0.5 mm to 0.2 mm because the fillet gives a little more space and movement in the hinge.

Original

I wanted a box to store various USB sticks.  Years ago I made some simple slide ones, but they weren't particularly good - The slide lid rails had broken and they only held 6 each.

I've just finished designing and after 8 hours, printed the first large box which I'm now using!

The most important element was the ability to make a box with almost unlimited possibilities of configuration.  Useful for the storage of USBs, electronic components, or other little bits and bobs.

Almost every feature of the box is configurable via parameters.

Thickness of the base, the lid and internal & external walls are all individually configurable.

The box is divided up into 4 segments:

• Front Left
• Front Right
• Back Left
• Back Right

Each segment can be independently configured, it'll automatically distribute them (in most cases - see below):

• How many rows (and their width)
• How many columns (and their lengths)
• Depth of the segment
• Cut-out depth, width, angle (set depth to 0 for no cut-out)

The number of hinges can be changed, including the width of the base hinge (it'll automatically distribute them and auto size the lid hinge). The diameter of the inner and outer parts of the hinges too.

The number of clasps, the size of them (width, length, height), the size of the latch (width, height, depth), etc. are all configurable too.

The length, width and depth of the overall box is automatically calculated based on combinations of the above. e.g. if using 2 segments, one being 10 mm deep, the other 20 mm deep, the overall will be 20 mm deep, but the shallower of the two will have more bottom filed in.

I guess it could also be good as some kind of organiser if the hinges and clasps are suppressed in F360.

Potential Issues

• Colour coding in F360 was just for ease of reference, but it isn't working too great.
• I don't know how robust the hinges or clasps will be.
• Between each group there's a solid wall with no cut-out. Is that a bad thing?
• If all 4 aren't used, it may add an extra 'Internal Thickness' to the back or side external wall (this is the frame being patterned).
• With certain configurations, cells may overlap each other. One example is when configuring Front Left and Back Right. It's easy to fix by changing it to both Front or both Back. Another example is where Back Left and Front Right are both 1 row tall, it causes Front Left and Back Right to overlap. Move them around is the easiest way to fix.
• Where gaps appear between Left/Right or Top/Bottom, it creates a void - This can be overcome by widening/lengthening some cells, but personally, having a bit of extra 'leftover' space is useful for little things that don't fit anywhere else!
• I've put some 'restrictions' in place to stop some issues from occurring, though when zeroing segments, it will throw warnings (e.g. it can't extrude when nothing exists).  Perhaps I could put more in, but 
• I was planning on having a lip around the lid, but I don't think it would be printable.

Original Design

The print I originally designed this for, which is in the photos, has 8 × 47 mm cells, 6 × 61 mm cells, 4 × 76 mm cells, and 8 × 33 mm SD-card cells.  The dimensions are listed below:

• Base, External and Internal thicknesses all 1 mm
• Lid thickness 3 mm
• Hinge OuterDiameter 15 mm InnerDiameter 7.5 mm

I've included the F3D file for the original, along with STLs and 3MFs for them.

Printed on an Ender 3 V2, with stock bed/hot-end/cooling; 215°C/65°C temps, generic PLA, using a fast profile.  Attached the GCODE files for convenience, but use with caution.

My printer doesn't seem to want to bridge and warped the back left with this filament. It's a multi-colour one, but I think it would only be good on a really big model to get the true effect.

Most of the parameters that can be changed are in the ‘Favourites’ section (how it should be spelt!).  There are others within the ‘User Parameters’, but these probably don't need to be touched.

The small SD-Card holder was the first thing I printed as a test.  It was made with exactly the same config, except having RowCount and ColumnCount as ‘0’ for Front_Left, Front_Right and Back_Left.  A smaller hinge (OuterDiameter = 10 mm, OuterDiameter = 5 mm), and the ExternalWallThickness of 2 mm. 

Testing

The lid hinge was a bit fragile on one of the first test pieces, so I changed the gap.  I've included a photo of all the test pieces I printed, the only real change was the latch from filleted to chamfered because it didn't quite print or fit - cut the hinges off to test; and the gap spacing in the lid hinge to join the two parts.

I accept no responsibility for any injury, damage or loss however caused.