[Mon Mar 26] Box one more try

Today we continued to work on our boxes. I started with cutting my revised design made during the break. I first realized that it was 1*1 inch instead of 2*2 inches and tried to make everything to scale, but Oscar said I will run into trouble doing 1*1 inch, and doing 2*2 inches at this point is just going to bring in more troubles. Therefore, I cut one of the three pieces of my design:

It turned out that the middle part was melted before the other parts were even cut through. I asked Oscar for a better design. Although later I realized that an important reason of why that had happened was because the middle hinges consisted of three layers of short lines on top of each other (that also explained why they look darker than the other parts...)

Anyways, Oscar showed us his samples of different patterns of the middle hinges. The materials he used were all thinner than mine (he used 1/8'' while I used 3/16 ''), so I wondered whether it would work on my materials. Here is his calculation/design:

However, Oscar recommended me to do mine on 1*1 inch first. Therefore, I recalculated and here is my result on paper:

It looks like this in Inkscape:

I cut it and it can bend 90 degrees if I try hard enough, and it looks very fragile...

But that should work. I went ahead to cut one more. Then I realized that I really need a model to see how they were put together, so I ran back to my room and brought back the model from last class. As I was trying to screw the two pieces together, one of the pieces snapped...

I think I was using too much force that it went over 90 degrees. But either way, it could not have worked because each piece was clearly too long that it wouldn't close up...

Therefore, I had to shorten the pieces- exactly the thickness of the material shorter, so that the pieces could close up. I drew it on Inkscape:

I cut it and tried to put these two pieces together first, but one of them snapped again... I went to see Kelsey's box, which had a similar design and could bend very easily. I asked Oscar for help. He said once I make the hinges on 2*2 inches, it should get better. But for now, just cut all three pieces so he could help me figure it out. I did that.

It wouldn't match...

I realized that I need to adjust the position of the holes on the short end - specifically, I should move it to the longer side by the thickness of the Delrin. Except for that mistake, Oscar said this design would work and encouraged me to try it on 2*2 inches next time. I drew the design for next class:

I will get rid of the colored lines later. Hopefully this will work!