Videotape Vault (and fancy slip cases!)

Howdy, wonderful people!

Some might say that VHS tapes are distant enough in the past now to be cool again, but I say they never stopped being cool to begin with! While those magnetic tapes may have faded from relevance for media distribution they remain an unmistakable icon of the cultural landscape. So, it seems obvious that life would be improved if we could adapt that retro styling and get some printed videotape coolness.

VHS tapes have some obvious features, like the labels and the windows into the reels inside, but they also have an abundance of small details. Holes, gaps, lines, all things that I could not possibly have drawn from distant memory - approximating those turned out to be critical to making a convincing tape. All these things are just encoded in our DNA now :D

So, as you've probably noticed, it's a box! The front is hinged and lifts from the edge above the spine label. The hinge is an interesting element, actually, and was the most significant design problem in the whole thing, because I was absolutely insistent that the hinge not be visible when the tape is closed, which is not usually how these things work. But once that was decided, everything else was built around it.

Let's look at how this thing assembles by taking it apart. So, first the divided tray lifts out - there are a couple of options included, including an undivided one that is intended to be customised .

Under the insert are the two tape hubs which just screw into the body to be visible from the back of the tape. And then there's the spine label! I had this as a glue-in piece for so long during the evolution of this model, but I really didn't like that as a solution and I'm quite pleased that it now bolts nice and securely. These things can be unreasonably satisfying :)

Now, the spine label geometry is not symmetrical, and so the bolts are spaced to ensure that it's really obvious if the label is the wrong way around!

On the lid side we have a fancy plate held in place with six bolts, and that holds all the front details in place. There's actually slightly too little vertical height under the plate for the contents, just to put a little tension on the plate and thus make sure that nothing will rattle even in the face of minor printer variations.

The two halves of the tape reel windows are sub-assemblies in their own right! There's a semicircular spool hub that slots into the arc of the "tape" itself, and both then get sandwiched between a back plate (which I've printed in opaque white) and a front window (that I've printed translucent). Those window elements are also what give the spoked reel look - there are interior features that are thicker than the very thin bottom layer.

The Slip Case

What is a blank tape without a case to slide it into? There are two versions, and they print entirely differently! The single-material version just prints spine-down in a single piece, and is a very straightforward print. The rad 80s styling one could also take that approach, but the filament waste and time overhead would be terrible.

Instead, the case prints in three parts, and each of those has only a single plane with detail, so the multimaterial printing only occupies a few layers and doesn't add any significant waste or time overhead.

The spine piece slots into one of the halves of the sleeve and is held secure when the two halves are put together. I was originally using mechanical elements to hold the two parts together but to be reliable they also needed to be bulky... so just use use glue to assemble the sleeve :)

Print Description

The Videotape Vault is an articulated model, so make sure your first layer is nice and neat, and watch out for print quality issues like overextrusion or stringing that might bond moving parts together.

Optional Magnets

If you want to use magnets to hold the tape closed, which is definitely a good idea, you'll want four of our eternal favourite 6x3mm cylindrical magnets.

Print Dimensions

The articulated main body of the model occupies 187mm x 196mm on the print bed and is 25mm tall.

Supports Needed?

Not at all!  Designed for straightforward printing!

Scalability

There's nothing specific to stop this being scaled up or down, but the usual caveats apply about scaled tolerances making things too tight or too loose!

Print Orientation

The main body prints outsides-down, folded open. The labels print face-down, bolts print head-down. For the remaining parts (insert, inner plate, and the front tape detail) the parts print flat-side-down, with the detailed side up.

File Location

You'll find this one at at 468 Videotape Vault

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

Further Thoughts

While most of this model is an assembly of single-material prints, the labels are one place where multimaterial printing really helps. But that doesn't mean we can't do something with single-material setups!

There are versions of the main and spine labels that are designed for a filament swap after the first few layers that'll result in a pretty good alternative! However, one downside of that approach is that it won't be appropriate for details that stretch to the edge, let alone features that reach three different edges, so the detailing is a consequently a bit more restrained.

Of course, another even more authentic approach would be to just use adhesive paper labels! :)

Happy printing!

xoxo

Sven.