This is the first time I’ve made a slip-case using friction fit. My last box was shoe-box shaped so there was plenty of leverage to grab onto the lid and box. For this one it had to work using only the finger-holes at the edge. Since this is plywood I do not expect much seasonal expansion or shrinkage so I had to count on the natural spring action of the large panels.
To anyone wondering whether I may be MASSIVELY over-engineering this, remember this is basically a medical device at this point. Last thing I want is to get a call saying “we found your son seizing on the ground next to two packs of crackers in an un-openable box.” He’s a postal carrier so the call we are expecting is more like “your son limped into the Emergency Room with a pit bull attached to his shin.”
Now that I’ve been making pens on the lathe, I discovered there are several varieties (click, rollerball, twist, fountain), with many ways of opening them to access the refill or ink cartridge. While I’m confident your document was humorous, there’s a case to be made that a serious version might actually be required.
Glad you liked the blog post. It turns out the PAPR respirator also comes in handy when I forget to attach the Glowforge exhaust hose to the window and set off all the smoke detectors in the house. Not onl;y does it let you safely enter the room where the printer resides, it scares the cats out of one or two of their nine lives! I should probably write that up as its own post.
We’ll get a report tonight. Things have settled down so he should be home before 10pm tonight for a change. I’m halfway expecting to get a visit from the Postal Inspector telling me I misused their logo and that this carries a fine and prison time. D’oh!
Thanks! It is a snug fit so there’s no chance it will come undone. My main concern is it would swell up and get stuck but it is raining here today so we’ll find out pretty quick. There is more than enough room to sand down if that happens though so it’s mostly a matter of adjustment rather than re-making it.
For the curious, I used the generator at MakerCase and specified the interior dimensions of the inner box. This is true 1/8 ply so I then added .25 inches to obtain the interior dimensions of the outer box. This resulted in zero clearance and almost impossible to open or close the box by hand. The clearance needed was then obtained by easing the corners until most of the laser burn marks were removed. I also did a slight sanding on the panels to remove glue and smooth it up.
As the photos show, at no point did the sanding go below the outer layer of veneer in the plywood so that was more cosmetic than for adjusting the fit. If the sanding required had gone through the veneer I would have re-made it with an extra 1/64 or 1/32 tolerance.
Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! I don’t know how 2022 will turn out but it’s been nice to start it with something fun.