Printable parts to add a hygrometer and a locking mechanism to an IKEA Eklatera storage glass.

Parts used for this project

• IKEA Eklatera glass ( https://www.ikea.com/de/de/p/eklatera-dose-mit-deckel-schwarz-30333125/ )
• Forstner drill bit 41mm ( https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0CDWX51B7 )
• Circular hygrometer ( https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07JG9QZ2B )
• Cheap drill ( https://www.amazon.de/dp/B000K2NPE6 )
• Cheap drill press ( https://www.amazon.de/dp/B005G3RHJS )
• 4xM5 threaded inserts ( https://cnckitchen.store/products/gewindeeinsatz-threaded-insert-m5-standard-50stk-pcs )
• 4x M5 flat head socket cap screws (~25-28mm)

Printing and using the drill jig

For printing the jig parts I used PLA with 0.2mm Layers. I recommend increasing the wall count a bit (I used 5). The forstner bit might eat into the walls of the jig and the threaded inserts like bigger walls. Other strength options are mostly irrelevant.

Melt the 4 threaded inserts into the holes in the lower part of the drill press jig.

Then put the wooden lid into the jig and secure it using the four M5 screws.

Put the jig into the drill press (indexing stubs should fit into the slots) and align the forstner bit with the hole in the jig. If your drill press has different slots you need to adjust the lower part to suit your needs.

Drill a 41mm hole in the center of the wooden lid.  A 42mm bit might also work (and 42mm bits are easier to come by), but 41mm seems to be perfekt.

Take the lid out of the jig and sand the edges of the hole if needed.

Place the hygrometer into the hole. You might need a bit of force.

41mm was perfect for the hygrometers I used. If you have different ones you might need to adjust the design and use a different size of forstner bit.

Printing the lid lock ring

Print with the broader ring down. STL file should have the correct orientation. STEP file needs to be flipped.

This part was designed to be printed with 0.2mm layer height and a 0.4mm nozzle. For the designed in support structures in the hinge to print correctly, it might be necessary to enable the “Detect thin walls” feature in your slicer.

The printed hinge might need a fairly well calibrated printer.

After printing, the hinge needs to be separated with mild force. Grab the ring with both hands with the non hinge loops pointing up. Try ripping apart the loop at the position of the non hinge loops by pushing your thumbs together. For me this was enough to separate the loops and the hinge. Move the hinge back and forth a bit after freeing it.

Printing without support might result in some stringing from overhang layer lines. I just cut them of.

Settings I used:

• Bambu Lab X1C
• PLA
• 0.2mm Layers
• 0.4mm nozzle
• Detect thin walls (needed for small support rings in the hinge)
• 5 Walls
• 15 % Grid Infill
• No supports

Feel free to improve on these settings :)

old v4 used 0.2mm spacing for the hinge. v5 uses 0.4mm spacing with a single 0.4mm wide line of support. v4 was very hard to separate. v5 fixes this without reducing print quality.

FreeCAD files are created using the 0.22dev version and might not load in 0.21 stable.