Tiger box (Boîte à tigre)

It's a box with a tiger drawing on the lid. One of the key aspects is the design of the hinge to open the lid, which is very durable.

I wanted to make a box for a personalized gift, so I put a drawing on the lid, as well as the name of the person for whom the box was intended. I also wanted the hinge to be durable and resistant because it's supposed to handle everyday use.

I designed the box on inkscape and used medium (3mm width). The measures of the box are 20.5 x 15.5 x 10.1cm. The size of the notches is 5mm.

To be able to put the image on the lid, I used a .jpeg file and then had to vectorize it in inkscape. The letters of the name on the lid were made using the Hershey Text Extension (already included in version 0.91.0 or later, under Extensions… Render…). I put my initials on the bottom of the box, also using Hershey Text.

I also made a small shoulder on the sides of the box so when the lid closed, it would always fall exactly into place and not get crooked over time.

When making the design, you have to be very careful calculating the diameter of the inner circle in the parts of the hinge. You have to account for the width of the material, so the diameter of the circle is a little bigger than the height of the axis pieces (because of the width).

Another important consideration is that the inner lines (red in the image) always have to be cut before the outer lines (blue in the image).