soccer ball box

I wanted to make a spherical box, and this came out of it :) It consists of two identical halves held together by a double sided bayonet lock ring. And naturally some sports ball design came into mind. I made a poll on two platforms about which design I should do: it got 110 votes, exactly half for soccer ball and half for basketball, and so I had to do both…

The clicky double bayonet lock is also quite satisfying and fidgety :)

Printing: Use a multi-color printer, assign a different color to the second part of the “half” 3mf file, print two halves and one ring. I suggest variable layer height with small layer height at the top to reduce stair step artifacts. With wasteful multi-color systems printing more balls at once reduces the waste-per-ball-ratio. I also reduced the purge volume quite a bit. A tool changer is of course much more efficient.

Assembly: Place the ring into one half, place the other half flush on top and turn it clockwise until it clicks twice to lock both bayonet locks. Opening and closing requires only one click, the ring is then still attached to one half. If you twist further to the second click, the ring can fall out. If you find that annoying, you can glue it to one half.