Meringue Twist Box

Hey there, wonderful people!

A twist box!  I haven't made one of those in forever, and this might be the first time I've made one where the lid prints right-way-up.  That has a few challenges for both design and printing, which we'll get to below.  

Being a twist box, he lid pushes down and twists onto the base, and it likewise pulls off with a twist in the other direction.  There are some discreen cutouts on the inside hole of the lid to aid with grip if necessary.

But, what is this shape?  I've called it a meringue because it reminds me of the peaks and swirls, and because I have a sweet tooth.  The shape, though.  Well, it's actually torus made from rotating a square around an axis while also spinning that square around its centre 180 degrees.  And then chopping that in half and adding a more conventional twisty extrusion with just the right geometry to visually continue the lines on the top.

To put that more simply, it's like taking a belt, giving it a twist and joining the ends.  And that's almost exactly what the inside of the lid looked like at first.  90% of the design work on this one was to remediate that and make it printable instead, with  nice 45 degree angles instead of awkward overhangs.

Printing Tips 

All the angles are designed for straightforward printing, but the lid has a certain amount of trickiness related to bed adhesion.  See, the lid prints right-way-up, meaning that it only has a thin strip of material that contacts the bed.  

So, if adhesion tends to be an issue with your chosen setup, you might want to think carefully about whether it needs some adhesion help.  Fortunately, this model will work very easily with a brim or raft for the same reason there might be a problem in the first place!

Print Dimensions

Meringue twist Box lid occupies 118mm x 118mm on the print bed and is 51mm tall.  The base occupies about the same area and is a little shorter.

File Locations

You'll find this one on dropbox under 706 Meringue Box

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

Further Thoughts

Twist boxes are one of those things that I found fascinating when I first got into printing, but I tend not to work with them too often unless there's some interesting further aspect (like fixing problematic geometry in this one).  Maybe I should find some other interesting ways to do more with twist boxes in future...

Happy printing!

xoxo

Sven.