How to Make a Cabinet With Y-Nodes - (3D Printed Joineries)

Y-Nodes is a multi-axes 3D printable joinery that can be used to make various structures. It is the result of a fun filled 6 week long Design project done, under the guidance of Sahil Thappa at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. The STL files are attached with the project and you can download them for free.

In this Instructable, I've attempted to make a 3 tier cabinet, just as an example of what you could make with these Nodes.

They are very easy and fast to both assemble and disassemble, making them ideal for temporary structures and other scenarios where ease of assembly is a criterion. Provided that you have a 3D printer, they are very cheap too.

Let me know what you think, if you do decide to make them yourself.

Tools and materials needed:

• 12 - Nodes + 9 - Y supports (STL files attached)
• 4x - 3ft Aluminum Tubes of 1inch diameter.
• 12x - 15inch Aluminum Tubes of 1inch diameter
• 3x - Square hard tops 15inch x 15inch
• 54x - Flathead Screws (15mm x 3mm | L x D)
• A hand drill + 2mm Drill bit
• Screwdriver

Note: The materials I've used in this project are the once that were easily accessible to me, and you need not use the same. I had few left over Particle board from a previous project and that is what I used to make the hard tops.

As for the round tubes for the frames, I used circular aluminium curtain tubes as they were both easily accessible and really cheap. You could use wooden dowels or even PVC pipes or just about anything that's 1inch in diameter.

I used the Aluminum tubes to make a frame with a node on each corner.

First I marked the position of the holes, and then drilled them. And subsequently used screwdrivers to screw the nodes in. I've found that doing this instead of drilling the screws directly into the tubes makes it more sturdier.

I also inserted the Y supports on 3 of the frames and screwed it down, to install the hardtops later.

Note: I used masking tape to make the fit more snug, by taping a strip of it at the end of each tube.

Just like the previous step, I marked the position of the screw holes, and drilled through them. And then screwed them down attaching the hardtop to the support and the frames.

I've cut down the corners of these squares, so that the legs could pass through the 4 nodes.

Now that you have square frames with hard tops on, and 4 3ft long tubes, you can put them all together and start screwing the hardtops onto the 4 legs. I used a level to make sure the hard tops are parallel to each other.

And now we have a 3 tier cabinet!

These are some structures that I tried making, with wooden dowels and Y-nodes, just as an example of how you could use these.

Incase you do try these out, do let me know how they turned out. Would be cool to see what you've done with these nodes. Feel free to edit and remix them to suit your needs.

Thank you and have fun!

Check out the entire project here.