Nautilus Box

Howdy, wonderful people!

Do you like articulated, multi-segment lids on boxes?  Who doesn't?!  The Nautilus Box has a lid with five segments that pull and push against each other to form a semicircular enclosure, and there's space for a pair of 6x3mm cylindrical magnets to hold things closed.

So, let's look at the bits that make this work!

Most obviously, there are some huge hinges.  These are large and deep in order to stay connected even when the big lid segments flex.  A small hinge would almost certainly detach, but the big conical elements here keep things together nicely.

Less obviously is the series of bevels and ledges on the interior and exterior corners of the lid that ensure the individual parts stay located within each other.  So, pulling the outer lid upwards pulls each of the other pieces up in turn, and pushing it back down catches the others along the way, too.  However, those are just guides, and there are also stoppers on the side of the box to keep the lid pieces from rotating too far upwards.

Print Description

This is a regular-mode print, but it's also an articulated model that prints in place, so you'll want to make sure your bottom layer is nice and neat, and that you don't have overextrusion, stringing or other print issues that might bond moving parts together.

Infill won't make a huge difference to this one, since it's mostly perimeters, but it might add a little rigidity to the base to up it a little.

Print Dimensions

The regular Nautilus Box occupies 80mm x 190mm on the print bed and is 89mm tall.

The wide version occupies 120mm x 190mm on the print bed and is 89mm tall.

Supports Needed?

Not at all!  Designed for straightforward printing!

Optional Magnets

If you'd like to use magnets to hold the lid closed, you'll need two of our old favourites: 6x3mm cylindrical magnets.

Scalability

The Nautilus Box isn't really designed for scaling, so there's the usual risk of loosening things with scaling up, and binding things with scaling down, but you might be able to mitigate that a bit with some careful slicer settings.

Print Orientation

The Nautilus Box prints base-down with the lid open, like so:

File Location

You'll find this one at at 621 Nautilus Box

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

Further Thoughts

Articulated lids are always interesting things to work on, especially when they have interesting mechanical problems, like keeping these pieces in sync with each other!

Happy articulated printing!

xoxo

Sven.