Fun with Living Hinges

[Tim Mellor]

Having a bit of a play with living hinges over the last few days seeing what sort of things work in 3mm Ply. Some mixed results and some failures but I am starting to get a bit of a feel for it I think. Time to play with some thicker webs for a bit more strength over the earlier attempts.

Magnets and end plates still to be glued to the Glasses case and some felt lining to be added.

[Pete Cyr]

Nice work Tim

[Tim Mellor]

The glasses case is not a commercial product with the fine hinge blades like this but satisfying as a gift. I will have a play with the idea given the 40mm ID curves with less and more chunky hinges and see how it goes. For others that may want to have a play the blades on the opening section were trimmed by 0.4mm each side on the design to help it clear the side panels for ease of use. The magnets are 2mm diameterx2mm long and have plenty of power to hold the lid shut.

Still needs a final sand and a coat of lacquer then the lining. Edit - Went with orange oil, take a little of the burnt off and smells good

[Tim Mellor]

After yesterdays Kerf and Tolerance testing todays Living hinge trimmed box was a breeze. Zero trim post cutting and holding together really solidly without glue until I get to it tomorrow. The outer shell is mainly dress but it will make the box very strong when glued together.

What is it in my case is a box to take Business cards to a market I make coffees at (one of my 'real' jobs). The inner cut away is to allow a finger to get in and get a card out when full, for a general purpose box I would most likely take it out and leave it full height.

Produced on Fusion 360 output with the Mapboards addon the through Inkscape to tweak it to Laser ready.