157: More Storage

Back in project 16, way back then, I designed some small storage to keep track of dialog boxes that I sell on Etsy. In the years since, the product line has evolved and those pieces are now available in many sizes. The original dialog box storage was pretty small, and in order to store pieces made at those larger sizes, I’d need a larger storage solution.

I had on hand a nice stackable plastic drawer. At 5.5″ internal depth, I’d be able to create storage that would hold all three dialog box sizes in one container: 3″ and 2″ pieces on the bottom and two sliding top shelves that could hold 1″ pieces.

A layout of the major pieces to make designing them easier.

I used box jointing to design the bottom, ten supports on the side, and the top “support rail” that would hold the two top shelves. For those shelves (I only made one for this project) I had to use acrylic cement to adhere the bottom layer to the top layer.

During cutting, the thin slats that hold the dialog boxes up were too close together, causing some pieces to buckle upward into the laser path during cutting. I spaced them farther apart to reduce lingering heat on the material.

The support ring snapped during assembly. Thickening the ring will prevent this in future revisions.

During assembly, the support ring snapped, shown below in photography. Since I was using ten support beams the issue didn’t ruin the project, but when I revise this I’ll have to thicken the support ring (and adjust the upper shelves to compensate.) In the end, the resulting storage is a little fragile, but will hold many more dialog boxes than my previous solution. Since this storage isn’t meant to be mobile (for craft shows and the like) this isn’t a big issue.