Hinged Chest with Working Lock and Wood Texture

thingiverse

There will be no more updates to this page. Go to the new GitHub page for the latest updates. My godson has a fascination with collecting small items in compact chests, and he wanted a chest with a functioning lock. So, for his next birthday I took their Small Hinged Treasure Chest and designed a lock mechanism for it. Of course, it is the most basic lock possible, with only one possible key and picking it is trivial, but it works. I also enhanced the overall appearance of the chest with extra details such as the excellent wood texture from the OpenForge Wooden Floors by devonjones. The hinge has been made slightly thicker to reduce the risk of it breaking. To unlock the chest, rotate the key counterclockwise and open the lid while keeping the key turned. The lock cannot be left in the open position; closing the chest automatically locks it. This video demonstrates how the chest works. I created three different key designs, although the skull key will probably be the most popular with little children by far :). Assembly is rather straightforward, but the parts must be printed and mounted accurately for the lock to neither fail to close nor be sloppy. See the images for instructions. On a well-calibrated printer, the parts should only require minimal post-processing to make them fit. If your prints tend to be sloppy, some extra sanding and scraping may be required. See the post-printing section for more details. The dimensions are 76 × 46 × 57 mm for the bulk of the chest, and 76 × 51 × 58 mm with the hinges and details included. It should be possible to scale up the model slightly, but you may need to scale up the latches a tiny bit more in two of the three dimensions to keep them a tight fit. If you want to print the chest at 200% size, print the models with Size200 prefix. These are already upscaled to 200% (meaning about 152 × 102 × 116 mm), and have been modified with reduced wall thickness and appropriate tolerances for the size. I haven't printed this larger model so I cannot guarantee it will work perfectly. Feedback is welcome!