Toothpick & Cotton Swab Boxes (from boxes.py w/notes)

These neat little boxes were generated with the hinged box generator from http://www.festi.info/boxes.py/index.html.

Some notes:

  • check the rendered SVG carefully for errors. There is no error checking and the generator will pretty much generate nonsense cuts if things are too short, too wide, too thick, etc…

  • captive toothpicks make wonderful hinges. Set the pin diameter to ~10% greater than the diameter of your toothpick! Any stiff round bit will work great, though. Paper clips, for example. The greater diameter of the toothpick makes the captivity easier to achieve, though.

  • to ensure captivity of the toothpick, make sure the hinge diameter is small enough that the hole in the middle of the hinge (the pin hole) overlaps with the edge of the piece it snaps into.

  • when assembling, stack the hinge pieces, stick in a toothpick (cut off the tapered end, stick it in cut end first), and cut it to length. Make sure the hinge piece is stacked in the opposing ordered needed for assembly.

  • assemble the hinge first!! This makes the rest of the assembly a lot easier. As I’m trying to do glue-less boxes, I dial in the fit to be very tight. I use a C-Clamp to push the hinge together.

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Huh! Great idea! :grinning:

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I’ve been eyeing those hinged designs but haven’t tried any yet. Yours came out great! Thanks for the notes—should help if I decide to do one.

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Great designs and idea!

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thanks for sharing generator, I going to try generated some box :slight_smile: and cut

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How cute! Personalized travel boxes would be cool.

Nice hinges, I’m liking those.