I have 6 storage boxes with small motorcycle parts. The boxes are stacked on top of each other, and each time I need a box I have to remove the boxes on top of it before I can take the required box out.
I could just put them on their side, but that makes them instable and they could fall over. So better option is to have a individual space for each box.
The later is the solution I'm going to try and create.
But there are several challanges:
- there are two different width of box sizes
- the width of the gap the boxes should be in is going to be 465 mm, but my printer capacity can do max width of 360mm
Mainly the limits of the printer are going to be challange. So I'm thinking of making a modular system in such a way that you can build up layers as required.
The modular system will consist of corner parts that will stack up to each other, and connecting parts that connect the corner parts both in X and in Y axis.
If I can build these connecting parts in such a way that you only require one for the Y axis and 2 for the X axis, that makes the number of parts to design limited to 2 (or actually three, but I will explain later). Part 1 the corner, Part 2 the connection.
Now for the mentioned part 3. As there are several loose parts, there should be a way to connect them together in such a way that they will stay together and not fall apart at first wigle.
So, first thing in this project to design is a way to connect the seperate parts. I'm looking into so called 'snap fits'. And as I don't want the snap fits to be part of the 2 other parts, but some sort of 'dowel pin' there is going to be a lot of testing into this. Especially measurements and strength will require some testing.
UPDATE : 2025 - feb - 19
The past few days I have been testing with PLA and PETG to make the test connection parts.
The first attempt was with PLA, and it came out great. But the design was tight... realy tight.... so I redesigned the 'male' part 0.1 mm smaller on all sides. Then printed in PETG and the connected realy well.
DESIGN TEST CONNECTION :
UPDATE : 2025 - feb - 26
The new smaller male part now fits great. You can even hear it 'click' when you insert it. So I have my dimensions that I can use, now to the drawing board and make something usefull.
UPDATE : 2025 - mar - 14
Noticed I forgot to post the small steps in between for this project.
But, I created some corner pieces, long and short in between pieces to be printed and that can then be connected together to become a modular storage box holder.... and it works.
It only takes up some space, so can't put 6 boxes within the intended space. But I expect that soon there will be a 7th box as well, so will have to make room anyway for a second tower.
And the design can be easily changed if I find other stuff that needs to be stacked like this.
Hapy with the functional design so onto the next project.