Quilted Case

Howdy, wonderful people!

Yes, it's a padded, fabric-covered, 3D printed box! I had modelled hard plastic versions of upholstered things before, so it's a logical progression to actually add padding and fabric, right?!

Let's have a look at how this is constructed. The panels on the box are prepared independently and bolted into place once they're ready. There are a bunch of almost-holes in the outside that provide space for the clamping brackets that are bolted to the side panels, and two holes for the actual attachment bolts to poke through.

Each of the panels has a corner bracket for holding the fabric in place, and those are very much needed in order for things to work.

To make things a little easier there's an assembly jig that helps hold the fabric in place while clamping, but whether you need it is probably dependent on the fabric you're using and whether you add padding. I used quilters' wadding from the craft shop and it worked nicely.

That "button" in the middle of the panel is entirely optional, but it does look cool. It's a huge pain to actually get put together though thanks to the small scales involved. There's a jig model for the bolt, should that be of assistance in keeping the fabric in place.

The intention is that the fabric be trapped inside the bolt using that interior nut, but in practice I found it vastly easier to just use glue on the inside of the bolt and to prod the fabric into place (and then to trim it).

Meanwhile, the lid is very similar, except for the addition of a plate over the brackets that makes things look neater and makes the lid able to fit neatly into the main body. Oh, aand the fact that the handle is not optional in the same way that the button bolts are, since it holds the aforementioned plate in place.

Print Description

This is a regular mode print, and while it's a model for assembly the tolerances are quite generous and should be fairly tolerant of print variations.

Print Dimensions

The main body model occupies 159mm x 140mm on the print bed and is 81mm tall.

Supports Needed?

Not at all!  Designed for straightforward printing!

Scalability

These should scale reasonably well, though there may be some need to scale connectors to address changes in tolerances as things get larger or smaller.

Print Orientation

There are a lot of parts to this one, but fortunately the orientation is fairly obvious for all of them (and they're already set up appropriately in the files anyway). However, have a look at the supplied photos of parts for further details.

File Location

You'll find this one at at 472 Quilted Case

Link to dropbox post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/31697592

Further Thoughts

At the same time as I was working through this model I was also exploring something similar using aluminium from drink cans. So, this could have turned out very different indeed! :D

Happy printing!

xoxo

Sven.