Interlocking Boxes

prusaprinters

<p><i>Voilà, a </i>scalable box with dovetail joints for linking in a row! At its original size, the box measures 100mm on all axes, excluding protruding dovetails and ribs. Time and mass estimates are per box, at original size.</p><p>Tolerance in the joints is provided by <i>XY size compensation</i> in your slicer rather than in the models themselves, so that it's unaffected by scaling. As long as boxes are printed at the <i>same</i> scale, whatever it may be, they'll mate together perfectly. A small test model is also provided for tolerance calibration.</p><p>The ribs in this design keep the walls from bowing as flat walls otherwise would in a large vase-mode print. The photographs are of boxes scaled to 125% on their X and Y axes, printed with a 0.8mm nozzle.</p><h3>Setup</h3><ul><li><strong>XY size compensation</strong> (aka “horizontal expansion”)<strong>: -0.1mm or so</strong>, whatever produces the best fit on your printer</li><li>Elephant-foot compensation: 0.2mm</li><li>Layer height: 90% of nozzle size, for fast printing</li><li>Solid top layers: 0</li><li>Solid bottom layers: At least 2 layers, giving a total bottom thickness of at least 0.9mm</li><li>Infill: 0%</li><li>Infill-perimeter overlap: 35% – for a well-attached bottom</li><li>Extrusion widths:<ul><li>External perimeters: 150% to 300% of nozzle size; ideally 1.2mm</li><li>All other extrusions: 225% to 300% of of nozzle size; ideally 1.8mm</li></ul></li><li>Perimeters:<ul><li>Quantity: Enough for walls 1.2mm thick</li><li>Spiral vase mode, if only one perimeter – to eliminate all seams except in the bottom layers</li><li>Seam position: Nearest – to minimize unsightly retraction flaws</li><li>External perimeters first – to hide retraction flaws when possible</li></ul></li><li>Supports: None</li></ul><h3>Variants</h3><ul><li><a href="https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/131365-interlocking-boxes-on-2-axes">Dual-axis Interlocking Boxes</a> – in case just one row of boxes won't do</li><li><a href="https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/131375-simple-box">Simple Ribbed Box</a> – a single box with no joints</li></ul>