Introduction: Casket

The following information is a single lesson in a larger Tinkercad project. Check out this and more projects on Tinkercad.

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Lesson Overview:

Now we're going to make a casket!

Step 1: Background

This project creates a two piece Halloween casket

Step 2: Creating the Exterior Shape of the Casket

The casket's basic shape is two trapezoids aligned at their widest parallel sides. Thinkercad doesn't have a trapezoidal shape, so we'll start with triangles and cut off their points.

Instructions

  1. Drag two green roofs and two red boxes to the workplane.
  2. Rotate the two roofs around the Y-Axis, in opposite directions and then line them up so the sides that are parallel are touching.
  3. Elongate the roofs so that one is 45mm long and the other is 25mm long. Make sure that the sides that the two roofs share remain the same size.
  4. Line up the first block so that it overlaps the shorter roof 15mm away from where the two roofs are joined.
  5. Line up the second block so that it overlaps the longer roof 25mm away from where the two roofs are joined.
  6. Make sure the top faces of the two blocks are lined up with the top faces of the roofs

Step 3: Finishing the Shape

This step will create the shape we will use four times to make the casket and the lid.

Instructions

  1. Select the two blocks and, in the inspector tool, turn the blocks into holes.
  2. Click over the top left of your shapes, then drag down to the right to select all of them. Alternatively, you can press Command-A on the keyboard to select all objects.
  3. With the items selected, grab the white handle at the top of the casket and shrink the shapes until they are 10mm tall. Because all of the shapes are selected, they should shrink uniformly.
  4. Click the group icon up at the top. Your shapes will become one and have the appearance of a casket.

Step 4: Creating the Hollow of the Casket

Duplicate the shape and use it to create the interior of the casket.

Instructions

  1. Duplicate the casket shape.
  2. Raise one of the copies up 1mm off of the workplane.
  3. Turn this copy in to a hole.
  4. Select the other copy. While holding shift, grab the top white handle and grow the shape until it is 11mm tall. By doing this, the casket should also become 22mm wide.
  5. Now we need to align the hole shape with the casket. We could start to move the hole by hand and guess at the center of the casket, but there is an easier way: the Align tool. The Align tool can align any two objects by the X, Y or Z axes. To use it, click on the hole, press the shift key, and then click on the casket. The shift key enables you to select more than one object. Then click on the Adjust button and scroll down until you see the Align option. You'll see a grid that looks like the screenshot above. We want this hole to be in the center, so click the two middle options on the workplane - this will align the middle of the two objects. You'll see the hole jump to the middle of the casket
  6. We won't group the shapes, yet. We will still need to adjust them for the lid.

Step 5: Creating the Lid

This step will create a lid using a copy of the casket.

Instructions

  1. Make sure the two shapes are still selected. While they are both selected duplicate them.
  2. Move these two shapes away from the original shapes if they are overlapping.
  3. Click anywhere in the workplane to unselect the shapes.
  4. Click on the larger of the two new shapes (the exterior of the copy of the casket).
  5. Shrink this shape until it is 1mm tall.
  6. Select the smaller, hole shape. Shrink this shape until it is 1mm tall as well.
  7. In the inspector, select the original color, this will change this shape out of hole mode. This new shape will be the inside of the lid and serve to help align the lid with the casket.

Step 6: Adjusting the Tolerances of the Lid

Right now the middle shape is exactly the same size as the inside of the casket. If the parts are the same size they wont fit together when printed. We'll make some adjustments to make sure they fit.

Instructions

  1. First, in the lower right hand corner, change the value of 'Snap grid' to 0.5. This will give us finer control over position and sizing.
  2. While holding shift, resize inside of the lid so that it is 19.5mm wide and 39mm long.
  3. We cannot be sure that the inside of the lid is still centered with the outside of the lid. Select the two lid shapes and use the align tool, again, to make sure the two parts are aligned on the workplane.
  4. Select all the parts and click the group button.

Step 7: Customize!

Now that your Casket is finished, let the world know who's inside by customizing the lid. Remember, when you put the lid on the casket, what you put on the lid will be reversed. You can either flip your design or you can use the mirror tool under adjust. Experiment!

Instructions

  1. First, in the lower right hand corner, change the value of 'Snap grid' to 0.5. This will give us finer control over position and sizing.
  2. While holding shift, resize inside of the lid so that it is 19.5mm wide and 39mm long.
  3. We cannot be sure that the inside of the lid is still centered with the outside of the lid. Select the two lid shapes and use the align tool, again, to make sure the two parts are aligned on the workplane.
  4. Select all the parts and click the group button.

Step 8: Printing Your Casket

This is an easy print. Just make sure the Casket and Lid are on the Workplane and it will print fine.

Congratulations, you have completed this project!

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