Traveling Luggage Treasure Chest

thingiverse

I want to create a clever box with shod feet that can follow me around, just like those featured in Terry Pratchett's Discworld stories. The box I have in mind is going to be easy to use. To assemble the box, you'll need to fit the holes at the bottom of its base over the top of shoe pegs. However, feel free to omit the feet if you prefer your box to stay put and not move around. To secure the feet in place, use some glue. The hinge holes on the box are designed to hold a length of filament as a hinge pin. But I have found that they're too small for this purpose. Instead, I use a piece of wire as a hinge. This works much better for me. For extra strength, I take a red-hot wire and push it into the boot section of the box to anchor the legs in place. I also clean out the lid hinge holes using a thicker gauge red-hot wire. To do this safely, I use a small kitchen torch to heat the wire while gripping it firmly with pliers. Once my project is finished, I like to give the surface of the ABS plastic a glossy finish by applying topcoat nail polish as an adhesive and small crack filler. I also paint the entire surface with multiple layers before giving it another glossy topcoat. This results in a smoother texture that's much nicer to look at. A topcoat of gloss on any unpainted PLA or painted area will also make the plastic significantly stronger. Just be sure to use acrylic paint when printing ABS materials, as they can melt on contact with acetone and damage the finish if you use nail polish.