Cartographers Modular Storage Box for 3D Printed Cartographers

This is a large storage box designed for the 'Simple 3D Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale by AlRynn' set. However, this will also work with any other 3D version of Cartographers. Find the Cartographers set this is designed for here - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4814880

The box is designed to fit on an Ender 3 series printer and larger, although you may have to remove brim/skirt. 

Before printing, please read all of the below. It explains each section of the box and some considerations for printing.

Tile Storage

This module is the top of the box, and the handle fits into it. It has four sections - one for each of the tile types. The storage is big enough to hold enough tiles for a 10-player game, and probably even more

Each section has a lid, which is designed to look like a giant tile of that type. There is a giant version of the coin model, which sits in the middle and locks everything together, which is useful for travelling.

Game Storage

This module is designed to hold all the components from the game, along with your mountains, coins & monster tiles. It has space for 8 small pencils, and 32 coloured pencils. It also holds the instruction manual and original drawing sheets. This means that if you want to play with more players than you have boards/tiles, some players can still play with the paper sheets.

The cards are held in four different sections, which keeps them organised but separated (explore cards, scoring cards, season & edict cards, expansion cards).

Board Storage

The last module holds the boards. This module can hold up to 10 of the 'Simple Cartographers' boards. Please bear in mind this module is designed specifically for that set, so it may need adjusting for other 3D printed sets. If you have a request for a certain set, let me know and I will try and make board storage for it.

Connectors

The three modules are held together with magnetic connectors, which also look like large tiles. These connectors have an 'I' shape on the back of them, as to lock the modules in place, and they are held in with magnets to stop them falling out whilst being carried. These are strong and hold everything together well. You will need to buy 5mm diameter by 1mm deep magnets to glue into the slots. Be careful when gluing them to ensure you have the polarity correct.

Handle

The handle is split in two halves, as to fit in a printer. Print them separately, and then press fit them together whilst putting them into their slots in the box. You can glue them for extra security, but I found this wasn't needed. Optionally, you can lubricate the pivot point of the handle before assembly, to make sure it moves smoothly.

You may want to use some supports on the handle, especially on some of the letters.

Printing

For this project you will need the same filaments you used to print the set. The four colours you used for the four tile types, a bronze you used for the coins, and a white for the box. Although you can of course print the box in any colour you fancy. I also used a black filament for the handle.

Its worth noting that these boxes were designed to fit on the Ender 3 Pro printer. If your build platform is any smaller than that, this won't fit. To print this on the Ender 3, you will need to scale every model down by 1%. I ensured there was enough tolerance for all the parts to still fit. Just make sure you print every single part at 99% scale.

All of the large modular sections are designed to be printed without supports, except for where the connectors go. You will need to enable supports and use the support blocker to prevent it building supports anywhere but here. There is an image showing this below.

Contact

I would love to see other people make this. If you print this, please post a 'make' of it so I can see. If you have any questions, or need any support whilst printing this, or want any designs changed, please reach out to me. I will happily help with anything!

You can email me at [email protected] DM me on here. 

Notes:

Enable ironing for a good surface finish.

You may want to increase the thickness of the walls for extra strength. I personally did a wall thickness of 4, but the default should be fine.

You may want to increase the infill in the handle to ensure its strong.