Akro-Mils Add-on Box

If you are into organizing your hardware, you probably have used, seen, or at least heard of the Akro-Mils Storage cabinet (something that looks like the image below). Tufts robotics club has two of those to store many of our hardware.

While these cabinets are awesome, sometimes I do feel that each drawers could have been smaller to store small mechanical hardware (like M2, M3 machine screws, standoffs, nuts, etc.). Therefore, I made an attempt to design a laser-cut divider for the club. Here's what the final product looks like:

Each box has a total of 16 spaces and are laser-cut and put together using acrylic weld and M2+M3 bolts. As shown by the images above, the top level can be lifted up to the side with the built-in parallel beams located at the sides of the box. These Akro-Mils drawers can then be put back to their original locations in the cabinet and can be accessed the same way as before.

Design Process

I began be sketching out my ideas on my iPad. I went for an interlocking structure that will help keeping the structure stable and increase contact area when welding the acrylic later. Originally, I planned to divide the top level symmetrically into two parts, but later changed it to single side to reduce the complexity of the mechanism and increase the size of the parallel beams.

I also experimented with deep-engraving the acrylic to make counterbored holes for the socket-head machine screws. This way the screws won't be sticking out and interfere with the other acrylic dividing parts.

The complete final design of one box can be laser-cut from a 12'' by 12'' cast acrylic that is 1/8'' or 3mm thick. It could also be made with plywood or MDF to reduce the cost, but I ended up sticking to cast acrylic because I prefer its clarity and consistency of textures.