Ho Ho Ho, and a Merry Christmas!
Presenting the >7 gram Christmas Gift Box!
Easy to print, easy to assemble and easy to enjoy!
Some Christmas Gifts are small, and that's okay!
But where do you find a nice looking box to fit such small gift into?
Right here, of course! And without having to waste a lot of filament! Neat, huh?
You can make the boxes even more festive by adding text in your slicer!
The Gift Box currently only comes in 45x45x45mm size.
I will be adding more sizes over the next few days (which is why I currently don't allow Remixing. But don't worry! It will be allowed, once the remaining sizes currently in scope have been uploaded).
But since I finally ended up with a working design, after many iterations, I wanted to share it with you guys already!
Assembly is quite easy - and I have created a short GIF to show you how!
Basically, everything just has to be bent to around 90 degrees and then snapped together. Simple!
If you find the fit to be a bit too tight or a bit too loose, please try changing the X-Y Hole compensation in the Quality-tab in the slicer:
I've personally succesfully printed and assembled the bow with both cheap, generic PLA, brand name PLA, PLA+, High-Speed PLA, etc.
However, Silk PLA, Matte PLA and other “special” types of PLA might not work as well, as they can be too brittle to bend like this.
You could try placing the print on the hot bed, set to 70-80 degrees, to heat up the bow after it has been removed from the build plate. That will soften up the PLA and might make assembly with these materials possible. I personally haven't tested this yet, so I won't guarantee anything :-)
Shout-out to Paul Elrod for this idea of heating up the print using the hot bed prior to assembly.
Now, we don't want to unnecessarily waste precious bio-plastic, by creating a bunch of one-time use things, right? Right!
So, I just wanted to share a quick and easy way to open the box, without the risk of breaking the tab on the lid.
Due to the flexible design, you can simply press on the side of the box, right below the tab, and it should pop right up (depending on your printer's tolerances of course).
Couldn't I just print a small box in vase mode instead?
Yes, you absolutely could! But then it wouldn't have the first layer on all sides. And with all the different build plates available these days, the first layer is becoming more and more attractive to show off. Plus, you wouldn't have a functioning lid directly attached to the box ;-)