Dovetail-Stacking Parts Drawer Cabinet

This is a small-parts cabinet in the style of an Akro-Mils unit, printed from modules. Each drawer cell is an open-front housing with dovetail grooves on all four long faces. Cells lock side by side and on top of each other with separate bowtie dovetail keys, so the cabinet can grow to 2x3, 3x2, a tall tower or a single row, in any direction. The bottom row slides onto dovetail plinth feet that can be screwed to a shelf or bench. You can also hang single cells on a wall through the two keyholes in their back plates. The kit is for workshop, electronics-bench and craft-room storage of screws, connectors and loose small parts.

Each drawer runs on a centre rail molded into the housing floor. A small bump on the rail catches a tooth at the back of the drawer, so a drawer pulled out stops about 95 mm out instead of spilling. To remove a drawer, lift its front slightly and draw it out past the bump. Drawers have notched divider slots at quarter lengths, an angled pull lip and a peg-on label holder that takes a 54 x 16 mm paper strip.

Assembly order:

1. Print the Fit-Test Coupon and one Joiner Key first. Push the key into the three grooves and fit the label-holder pegs into the three holes. If only the LOOSE groove accepts the key, print the keys at 98% X/Y scale. If the key rattles in the NOMINAL groove, print keys at 102%.
2. Screw the plinth feet down (optional), one per column, placed side by side with no gap.
3. Slide the bottom-row housings onto the plinth tongues from the front.
4. Join neighbouring columns by sliding a Joiner Key into the side-face grooves they share.
5. Stack the next row: slide keys into the top grooves of the lower row, then slide the upper housings down onto the keys from the front, aligning the fronts flush.
6. Insert the drawers with the back end tilted up so the catch tooth clears the rail bump, then let them drop onto the rail.
7. Press dividers into the slots, and press the label holders into the two holes on each drawer front.

Tuning: the housing grooves and the coupon grooves are both printed vertically, so the coupon result predicts the real fit. The keys are designed to 0.3 mm per side. If a drawer drags, check the rail for elephant's-foot flaring at the front of the housing and chamfer it lightly.