Modular Project Box

Every electronics project needs a propper box. This might be the one for you.

About the Design

In theroy an electronics box is not to complicated. Just print a small box with a lid and stuff everything in. But often the devil is in the details. This design tries to solve some common problems with such boxes:

Cutouts

Cutouts on a boxes side usually don't print too well if the box is printed in a single piece. Since sides are printed standing up, you might need supports and the cutouts don't come out really clean.

With this design all six sides of the box are printed flat. This way all cutouts can be printed really precise, without any supports, no matter which side.

Reusablility

If your layout changes during a build, you don't need to reprint the whole box. Lets say you want to add or remove a cutout on one side, just print that side again. 

Also if you want to change some dimension of the box you might be able to reuse some pieces. E.g. if the height stays the same, all poles can be reused.

Maintainablility

Since the lid attaches using M3 inserts the box can be dis- and re-assabmled as often as you want. So you don't need to worry about threads wearing out.

Installation

After finishing the project box you might want to install it somewhere. For that I modelled some ‘ears’ with screw holes on the bottom part. Using that you can screw the box somewhere without opening it again.

Also, if you don't need these ‘ears’ you can just use the top lid instead of the bottom one.

STL Files

I exported some commen box sizes to print directly. To make your box work you have to select a matching set of parts. For that I marked each part with its dimensions. For that the dimension corresponds to the total size of the box, not the part itself.

For example if you like to print a box with outside dimensions of 10x15x4 (width / depth / height), you gotta print the following parts:

• 1x Lid Top - 15x10
• 1x Lid Bottom - 15x10
• 4x Pole - 4
• 2x Side - 15x8
• 2x Side - 10x8

Print Settings

All sides of the box should be printed laying flat. For the top and bottom lid supports should be enabled for the screw holes. The poles are just printed standing up without any supports.

Assembly

In each pole an M3 insert schould be installed. The poles can then be screwed to the bottom using 16mm M3 screws. After that the four sides can be slid into the groves. Finally the top might be installed with the same 16mm M3 screws.