Inertia Box

Hi, wonderful people!

Hinged lids are an interesting thing, especially when we're dealing with print-in-place designs!  Not only do we need to consider the way the lid fits with the body of a box, but there's the whole consideration of the path of the lid as it rotates, especially if that lid has printed top-down on the bed.

These problems get especially prominent when dealing with tall, slender designs like this one, and particularly if the lid sits on top, as most lids tend to do.  And that's why this one ended up inside the outer walls!  That design choice meant that a bunch of other compromises didn't need to happen (and it also looked cooler.)

Now, I did have a particular goal with this design of having a bolt closure, but without it being overly prominent, especially when opting not to use it.  A few of my other designs have very effective threaded features, but they're mostly very central to the design, like the split thread on the Clamshell Cases.  So, I wanted to avoid that, but still have the threaded closure present, which is how the bolt ended up going into the back, above the hinge.  

The really interesting part of all this is that because of how that works, the lid doesn't actually rest on the lip inside the rim of the box at all; it's suspended by the hinge instead.  In practice, that doesn't really make any difference to anything, but I just like the way it works :)

Printing Tips

No supports needed, and this is designed for straightforward printing!  As usual with articulated designs you'll want to make sure your bottom layer is nice and neat, and that you don't have any print issues like stringing or overextrusion that might cause binding in moving parts!  

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

Print Dimensions
Inertia Box occupies 105mm x 52mm on the printer bed, and is 88mm tall.

File Location
You'll find this on dropbox under 745 Inertia Box

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

Further Thoughts

But wait, you ask, what about  multimaterial version that has drips down the sides?!  Yes, that's a very specific thing to ask, but fortunately we have exactly that!  There's a Multimaterial folder that contains a somewhat more decorative version of the Inertia Box.  

I don't yet have a successful print of this one myself, but I have a nice collection of purge blocks from the attempts!  If you give this one a try, I hope you have better luck! :)

Here's a render!

Happy printing!

xoxo

Sven.