12 Leaf Aperture Iris Box

myminifactory

This is an improved version of my '12 leaf Aperture Box' design featuring an opening twist collar. This has allowed me to keep the top clear of opening handles, thus allowing decorative tops to the box. The box has 12 leaves, much like a camera iris, but with the structural rigidity for a functional everyday box. The box is 80mm tall, 80mm in diameter and is opened by twisting the collar anticlockwise. There are also many other iris boxes which you can find on my profile page. Look out for new themed decorative tops for this box such as the Gear Lid. Other than the printed parts, this requires M2x6 countersunk screws to assemble (as with all my other designs) such as these; 36 screws are required in total for one box. Larger or smaller screws may be used if you scale the model appropriately e.g. M3x8 screws at 150% part scale. Note: it's a lot cheaper per screw if you buy in bulk from a specialist supplier. There are two versions of the container, the standard container (yellow) and the shortened container (green/black) which brings the overall height down to 48mm. The pattern on some of the containers was formed using the velocity painting technique and there are many excellent guides online on how to do this. The line pattern on the yellow container was Designed by Freepik . The triangular pattern was remixed from a design by rawpixel.com / Freepik. The floral pattern was remixed from a design by GarryKillian / Freepik. There are three types of door design included: The simple 'door' is plain and flat and is used on the blue/green example; the 'star' door creates a pointed star embellishment on top of the container and 'door hyp' creates a hypnotic spiral on the box when opened. For both the 'star' and 'hyp' doors I have included versions for multi-material printing, denoted with 'MM' in the object file name. It is not actually neccessary to have a multimaterial printer in order to make the multi-material prints. All the prints shown were printed on my single nozzle 3D printer. An excellent tutorial on how to do this was produced by Devin Montes. Essentially the 'base' parts are printed first and the 'top' parts are then printed on top in a different material. The results speak for themselves and really make the patterns stand out. There is also the choice between 'Collar1' and 'Collar2'. The difference being 'Collar1' has six dimples for gripping and twisting the collar, as used on the green/blue example and 'Collar2' has twelve, as used on the other examples. Part testing If you can print one of my other 'aperture' designs 'Aperture Box' or '12 Leaf Aperture Box' then you will be able to make this design. Before printing off all the parts you should make sure the screw joints and sliding dovetail joints work correctly with your print settings. Print two of the 'Door' parts (using some support on the dovetails as shown in the pictures) and test the dovetail sliding. They should be loose enough to slide easily under their own weight for the design to work effectively. Try to avoid 'elephants foot' on the base of the doors, as this can reduce tolerances and cause excess friction. If they are too tight then try reducing the layer height or using outer contour XY compensation in your slicer (Ideamaker is a free slicer which does this). Lower friction materials are also important, I used PLA which works great. Also check that your screws fit tightly in the holes on the base of the door parts. You may need to scale the parts or use hole XY compensation (Ideamaker also does this) to get a good fit. Also print off one of the links and check the screws turn freely in the holes, and the head is flush with the part surface. Assembly Instructions Also see pictures for visual instructions To make the box you will need to print: 1x 'Container' or 'Short Container', 1x 'Collar 1' or 'Collar 2', 12x 'Link 1', 6x 'Link 2' and 12x 'Door' of any type. Take the container and place the collar onto it. Screw the narrower ends of the six larger links (Link 2) to the holes in the container. The collar should now be held securely onto the box but also be able to twist freely. Screw the non-pointed ends of the smaller links (Link 1) to the collar. For attaching the links to the doors it's easiest if you roughly assemble the doors in the open position upside down and place the container and collar assembly on top of them. Now screw the other end of the larger links to the inside holes on the doors. Now screw the smaller links to the holes on the outside edge of the box doors. You should now have a working Aperture Iris box! The mechanism may be a little stiff at first but should loosen up over time. A little bit of silicon lubricant could also be used on the dovetail joints to make it work more smoothly. If you have any questions or problems with this design, I will be more than happy to help.