My mom has decided she wants to collect all 60 colors of the new Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inkpads. She had a large decorative box from Michaels (15.5" x 10.25" x 4") with the 36 pads she has so far jumbled together in it. I took some measurements and determined that I would be able to fit all 60 colors in the existing box with some creative dividers.
I modeled the space (length x width x 1/4" less than the height of the pads) as a rectangular box in Fusion 360, then invoked the Slicer command. There I entered the 0.05" mat board that I wanted to use for the dividers, into the custom materials area. I chose the Interlocking slices method and played around with settings until I had slots for all 60 pads. Exported the design to DXF, then brought the pieces into illustrator. Because of the material I was using, it was easiest to just slice up the length and width pieces using our gigantic guillotine cutter. So I made a cardboard jig the size of the pieces, and used the laser to cut the interlocking slots as well as the half circles to make the pads easier to remove. Also, I took another piece of cardboard and scored the locations of the ink blending foams (1.25" circles) so they would correspond to the inkpad locations.
She came over to dinner tonight and we spent the evening labeling the foam locations and putting everything in the box. We were both really pleased by how it all came out. Everything fits perfectly!
Wow, that’s so organized! (And I’m a little distressed to learn that I could have used Slicer instead of messing with the darned parametric divider thing I’ve been trying to set up.)
Slicer is not without issues as well. I went through several permutations before getting it right. For one thing, Slicer defaults to putting supports close to the ends and I needed to manually move the dividers. Then you also have to fiddle with the slot offset to get the slots sized correctly.
I loooove this. So precise and tidy! Now that my epic valentine is finished I want to start thinking about how the GF can revolutionize my art supply situation. Not sure I am ready to think about tackling F360 yet though.
My fundamentally morose soul loves anything that breaks with the normally cheery names assigned to colors (Broken China, Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick & Peeled Paint), but I have no idea what I’d do with them as I’ve never heard of a blending foam. And while I gave ideas about what it does (blends stuff), I’m still clueless how to use one. Also, not motivated enough to search YouTube to find out. Maybe some future day.
Turned out great! I did some holders that take 8 pads for my Distress Oxide. Works, but didn’t love the assembly of it. Chipboard was my material, also. Now need to come up with something to hold the blenders … As I prefer one handle per applicator. Or, I’m too lazy to change the applicators?
Ok, first off … I should have taken another look … it is 2x7 storage. I used the file from Awesome SVG’s to make a set of three of these. I didn’t find it easy to connect … however the glue seems to hold it just fine. I didn’t decorate the outside at all, as I have them sitting in shelves … and they can’t be seen anyway.
