3D Box

Step 1: Create the Box

Creating your box is easy, just pick your shape and your measurements. Make sure it fits onto the hot plate of your 3D printer, this is key. Our first design did not fit the hot plate, so make sure it will fit before you start building your hinge. When creating your box don't forget to add a layer of thickness for the walls and floor of the box so that it does not end up being .2 mm thick because at that thickness even PLA is not very strong.

Step 2: Hinge

Creating the hinge is the hardest part of this project. Some of the problems presented in making it were, problems when trying to upload it to the slicer program when it had design errors that made it seem hollow and therefore unable to be printed. Another problem was creating a working hinge that would interlock well and rotate enough when printed hence the dips/ ridges where each piece interlocks and the gaps between each loop. When in the printing stage there were more difficulties. ABS would separate causing a useless piece and was also brittle and delicate making it easy to break while PLA plastic would not print a perfect of a circle for the loop or the peg creating the need for sanding to make the hinge workable however afterward it was stronger than the ABS.

Step 3: Connecting the Hinge to the Box

Find the center or midpoint of one side of your finished SketchUp box, we suggest using guidelines to then mark the midpoint. then copy the back face of one style hinge, either the three ring or two ring. Place the midpoint of this face on the midpoint on the top of the box and then delete the face that is overlapping on the box. delete the back face of you hinge and move that side to the hollow part of your box which is a perfect entrance shape for your hinge now. this is done to get ride of some unnecessary lines that could complicate things later on during the slicing and printing part of the process. repeat every time you have to connect a hinge to another surface.

Step 4: Creating the Peg

The peg goes through the loops of the hinge to connect them and allow them to rotate in a hinge-like motion. the simplest way to create this is to make a circle, use the push/pull tool to get it a bit longer than the length of the long side of the hinge and more narrow than the diameter of the inside of the loops of the hinge -- if it is slightly to big after printing it can easily be sanded down. Also it is key to remember that SketchUp takes measurements of the radius of the circle so if you want the peg to have a diameter of 10mm upon creating it you should type in 5mm. After creating the length of the peg use the offset tool to create a lip on one side to help prevent slipping out and push pull it a bit to strengthen it.

Step 5: First Print of Hinge (ABS)

As previously mentioned the ABS plastic was weak, this was most likely because it was unable to reach a high enough temperature in the conditions available to us. As seen in the pictures the loops broke apart in some places and although not easily noticeable the body of the hinge also has some splitting and parting.

Step 6: Second Attempt at Hinge (PLA)

The PLA plastic was more solid as well as allowing a few more edits to the design where errors occur creating a hinge that worked. However as can be seen in pictures 2 and 3 the circle was not perfect and has access material that needed to be sanded prior to it working. Furthermore there seemed to have been some problem with our second loop because it came up hollow in the slicer program and because of that did not print.

Step 7: Arduino Lock Box

I tried to make a lock to complement the jewelry box. I first tried to make a lock using Arduino; however, many of the tutorials that I watched were either too expensive, too complicated, or didn't explain how to make the thing that they were showing. Additionally, RFID sensors are expensive, so the Arduino keepsake box shown in the picture was out of the question.

Step 8: Arduino Schematics

I found a tutorial which used a combination-button system for a lock, but this design had problems as well. First, the code was outdated, so some parts were no longer correct. I sifted through the code and corrected the errors, but then realized that the tutorial didn't teach how to connect the lock to a servo to then make a lock that would work for the jewelry box.

Step 9: Wooden Lock

I then looked for another approach, so I thought about using woodworking to make a lock. Unfortunately, the tutorial didn't provide any measurements for the parts, so I drew rough sketches in an attempt to make my own wooden lock. But then I encountered another problem.

Step 10: Wooden Lock Sketches

By the time I decided to do this, there was approximately a week left and there were many things I would have to learn, such as making wooden dowels and using various saws, As a result, I was unable to complete the lock. I believe the take-away from this experience is to keep accessibility in mind when approaching a project. While I considered many options, I was unable to complete any one of them because I lacked either the skills or the resources to do so; as a result, I could not firmly decide on one design. Thus, while it is important to consider the available time to complete a project, it is equally important to make sure that you have the resources to complete it.