Make Gridfinity outer corner radius adjustable

[TinkerBarn]

It would be useful to control the rounding of the four outer corners of Gridfinity parts, with a radius that can be reduced all the way to 0 for sharp corners.

This should apply to both Gridfinity baseplates and boxes. In particular, adjustable or disabled corner rounding on a baseplate would make it easier to fit the plate to the inside corners of a drawer. The same option for boxes would let them match the desired fit and appearance.

This request concerns only the four outer corners, not the internal corners or other rounded features.

[henmedia]

@TinkerBarn thank you, that is a clear request. Today the outer corners have the fixed radius of the Gridfinity standard, 3.75 mm, and there is no setting for it. The baseplate's outer corner is separate from its pockets, so a smaller radius or none there would not change how bins fit, which is what you need for a drawer. For a bin, the rounding has to match the pockets of the baseplate it stands in, so I would like to know what fit you have in mind there. @mlugo-apx built the Gridfinity shapes and the padding at the edge of the baseplate, so this may be something for you: would a corner radius on the baseplate, down to zero, be easy to add next to the padding?

[TinkerBarn]

@henmedia @mlugo-apx Thank you! I’m really happy that you’re adding this. A configurable corner radius on the baseplate, down to zero, would be great. I’d leave the bins as specified by the Gridfinity standard, since changing their corners could affect how they stack. Keeping the pockets unchanged is exactly what I had in mind.

[TinkerBarn]

@mlugo-apx @henmedia Thank you for implementing the adjustable corner radius for the baseplate! After seeing how you handled it, I’d like to revise my earlier view. I now think it would make sense to offer the same option for bins too.

If the bin’s outer corner radius can be changed without affecting the stacking geometry, this would have another useful benefit: when several bins sit side by side in a drawer, smaller or square corners could close the gaps between them, so small parts like screws, nails or nuts are less likely to fall between the bins.

If there’s no downside to doing this, could you please consider adding an adjustable outer corner radius for bins as well?

[mlugo-apx]

@TinkerBarn @henmedia I looked at how a bin is built, and it can be done without touching the fit or the stacking: the feet, which sit in the baseplate's sockets, and the inside of the stacking lip, which takes the feet of the bin above, keep their 3.75 mm rounding; only the outer wall above the feet would get the new radius, down to square. The gaps along the sides stay 0.5 mm, but where four bins meet, the hole between their rounded corners is about 3.8 mm across today, enough for an M3 screw; with four square corners only the 0.5 mm gaps are left.

Two things need care. A 1 x 1 bin sits down on the slopes of its socket, and a square corner would rest on the top of the baseplate instead, so I would keep the first 0.25 mm above the feet rounded and only square the wall above that. And the lip chamfer would need to follow the square corner. Both I would print and check in a baseplate and stacked before sending anything.

@henmedia would you like this as a setting of its own for bins, next to the wall and the lip chamfer, apart from the baseplate's corner radius?

[henmedia]

@mlugo-apx thank you for looking into it so carefully. Yes, please make it a setting of its own for bins, next to the wall and the lip chamfer and apart from the baseplate's corner radius, so a bin can stay as the specification draws it. Your plan to keep the feet and the inside of the lip rounded, to keep the first 0.25 mm above the feet rounded for a 1 x 1 bin and to print and check it in a baseplate and stacked before you send it sounds right to me. Take the time you need. @TinkerBarn thank you for the reasoning about the gaps between bins, that is what made this worth doing.

[TinkerBarn]

@henmedia @mlugo-apx Thanks to both of you for picking up my idea and working on it. I love this project! 😍😍😍