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Straight Lattice living hinge

Staggered straight slots in a brick bond, the pattern most people recognise as a living hinge.

Best for: A first box, tight budgets of cut time, and when you want the wood grain to show more than the pattern. It is a flexible pattern.

Free hinge: export it on the free shapes with no account.

Straight Lattice living hinge: a window onto the wall strip of a 150 mm round box, red cut lines and blue score lines
A window onto the wall strip of a 150 mm round box, 80 mm tall, on 3 mm stock. Real cut lines.

Measured, not guessed

Tightest bend by stock

The Studio lays the Straight Lattice out on a test strip at every spacing it can use and measures how far each link twists per unit of curvature. At its densest spacing the pattern bends to these radii without passing the wood's 1.2% shear-strain limit. The right column is the tightest corner any catalog shape asks for on that stock.

StockBends toTightest corner used
3 mmR5.0 mmR8 mm
4 mmR4.3 mmR10 mm
6 mmR7.0 mmR15 mm

On a 150 mm round box

What the laser cuts

hinge cuts
375
in 150 columns round the wall
total cut path
14.2 m
base, wall, lid and hinge
hinge load
91%
of the safe twist limit, worst link
wall height
80 mm
on 3 mm stock, default kerf

Cut time depends on your machine: at 10 mm/s that path takes about 24 minutes. Dense patterns cost more time than open ones, and the Studio shows the cut length live as you change size and pattern.

Try it on

The Straight Lattice on eight shapes

Each link opens that shape in the Studio with the Straight Lattice hinge already selected.

Heart Shell lid: red cut line with its scored lid art in blue
Cardioid shell, filleted cleft
Pumpkin lid: red cut line with its scored lid art in blue
Five soft lobes
Curved Cylinder lid: red cut line with its scored lid art in blue
Round or oval, even wrap
Fox lid: red cut line with its scored lid art in blue
FoxPro
Big ears, fluffy cheeks
Seashell lid: red cut line with its scored lid art in blue
Ribbed scallop shell
Snowman lid: red cut line with its scored lid art in blue
Three snowballs and a top hat
Cupcake lid: red cut line with its scored lid art in blue
Swirled frosting, cherry on top
Rounded Box lid: red cut line with its scored lid art in blue
Hinges only at the corners

Other patterns

Next in the catalog

Interlocking Hex cut layout: red cut lines and blue score lines
Mirrored zig-zags
S-Curve Sine cut layout: red cut lines and blue score lines
Wavy S-curves
Voronoi Mesh cut layout: red cut lines and blue score lines
Seeded organic cells
Serpentine cut layout: red cut lines and blue score lines
Long meander, most flex

Questions about the Straight Lattice

Is the Straight Lattice hinge free?

Yes. The Straight Lattice is one of the two free hinge patterns: use it on the free shapes and download the SVG with no account.

How tight can the Straight Lattice bend?

At its densest spacing the Straight Lattice bends to about R5.0 mm on 3 mm plywood, R4.3 mm on 4 mm and R7.0 mm on 6 mm, measured by the same model that spaces the cuts. The Studio never asks it to bend tighter than 8, 10 and 15 mm on those stocks, so every shape in the catalog stays inside its limit.

Does the pattern change how strong the box is?

A little. Patterns that cut more wood away per column feel softer in the hand; the Serpentine is the softest, the Stepped Lattice and Morse the firmest. The base, lid and the solid bands at tabs and seams give the box its rigidity, so all of them make a box that holds its shape once assembled.

Can I use it on any shape?

Yes. Every one of the 100 shapes works with every pattern; the Studio spaces the cuts for each curve of the outline and checks every link against the wood's twist limit before you export.