Connectors for custom built acrylic showcases

With these fast and easy to print joints you can build your own transparent showcases for models like the depicted Lego sets. You will need ‚cut to order‘ 3mm acrylic plates, M3x20 screws and nuts, a powerdrill.

Concept

Corners and edges are held in place by a bracket on the outside and a corresponding cube on the inside - both connected by one screw on each face). 

I order to achieve this, the screw holes all need to be off-center as not to block each other.

Building parts

You will need an outside corner and an inside cube for each corner. There are three sided corners for „real“ corners connecting three sides as well as two sided brackets for sides you wish to leave open or for additional support on long plates (see photo of Saturn V model).

Orientation guide

I got frustrated by finding the correct orientation of the cube in correspondence with the outside bracket. This is why in the final model uploaded here you will find symbols on both the cube and the brackets. These face each other and thus are invisible once assembled.

Drill guides

These help you to drill the correct holes for each symbol. Attention! You need to place the drill guide so the symbol is facing you. 2-sided drill guides feature a center line notch.

Wall mount

The mount will accommodate a corner cube. The rather big case for the LEGO Apollo 11 Saturn V you see in the picture is only supported by these two hooks and its 110 cm wide.

Assembly

Usually, cut-to-order plates will come with a protective foil. Leave that on! Double check your drill holes, thinking in three dimensions can be weird. I strongly recommend using drill guides and reprint those as needed, as they will wear out. You can either hold the nut in place during assembly or fix it to the cube with a drop of glue. You will need to do that if want to build a full enclosure.

Private use

Feel free to use this for yourself but please do not sell the printed items or the files. If I had the time, I’d use this to custom build show cases for $$$. If that’s something you want to do, talk to me. We’ll find a way.