Mechani-Bow Box (Patreon)

Happy holidays, wonderful people!

This one might be a stretch to get printed by xmas :P  Allow me to introduce a more mechanically-oriented gift box to the collection.  I mean, the others already have bolts and such, but this one has cogs!  And rack gears!  And a decidedly industrial aesthetic.  I can't deny that I have a soft spot for utilitarian, industrial lines, even when it's entirely gratuitous like it is here :D

The angular bow on top is fixed to a huge central cog that's meshed into four rack-geared pins, kind of like the Vault Box, but these pins are also constrained to remain within the lid confines by raised tabs that move between two braces on the upper side of the lid.  The whole lid prints assembled in place.

There are three heights of box; the one pictured in the photos is the smallest.  The others essentially add the height of that middle ribbed section again.

So, can you scale this thing?  People often do successfully scale down these designs, though it does require a well-tuned printing setup.  I managed to scale down to 60% there on a Prusa Mini without problems, but I suspect if I threw it on one of my unmodified Ender 3 test machines it would be a bit of a disaster :)  The full-sized version is intended to print nicely on just about any machine, though.

Printing Tips

Designed for straightforward printing, no supports required, no crazy angles.  The tolerances are quite generous, too.  As with any articulated model, you'll want to make sure that you don't have any printing issues like overextrusion or stringing that might bind moving parts together, and you'll want to take care your bottom layer is nice and neat.

The parts print bottom-down like so:

File Locations

You'll find this on Dropbox under 784 Mechani-Bow Box

(Dropbox link post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/dropbox-and-are-31697592 )

Further Thoughts

Obviously this thing was inspired by the holiday season (but very much not planned for it, hence the timing!), hence the bow motif, but I'll do up an alternative lid handle in the near future - something suitably industrial-looking, to match the rest of the design.

As always, I can't help but be amazed that printers can do these sorts of things!  We are totally living in the future.  I wonder if it would be possible to do something similar with four separate locking handles?...

Happy printing! (and almost Happy New Year!)

xoxo

Sven.