I’ve just completed version 5 of the box.
This came about after a call with my brother in Florida. He mentioned that he was talking to a neighbor, Lee, who is a “snowbird” from Canada and was back in FL after missing 2021. Turns out they both use mouth guards at night. In fact, Lee and his wife both use them. Go figure, my bro, his wife, and their neighbors all use mouth guards. Weird, right?
My bro asked Lee how they store their guards, then showed him the guard I designed and printed for him. And, you guessed it, Lee and his wife both would like to have some of their own.
I asked my bro about what he feels is the weakest part of the design. He said it’s the latch. He said he’s careful when opening or closing his 3 boxes, but the tip on 1 of the latches did break off.
Drawing on the experience of the past year, I figure the latch tip that broke did so because it was printed in place, which meant the layer lines run horizontally across the width of the latch instead of vertically.
I redesigned the latch as a separate model. I put a slot into the bottom half of the box. The latch slides into the slot.
While I was at it, redesigned the hinge so it doesn’t even have to span the width of a hinge segment. It now uses matching cones and recesses.
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Here is the box closed. Yep, the neighbor’s wife’s name is Colleen.
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The bottom side of the box. Since my bro’s neighbor is Canadian, I decided to personalize the box a bit by adding a Canadian flag. Believe it or not, you can find and download an image of the flag, with measurements, online. That made it pretty easy.
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Here is the box layed out flat.
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The inside of the box. You can see the slot for the latch on the left.