1-2-3 snap-lock bottom carton
ECMA A55.20.01.03
Locking floor without glue: three folds and the tabs hold it. Tuck top.
- Example size
- 100 × 70 × 140 mm internal
- Blank
- 360 × 298 mm
- Pieces
- 1 blank
- Board choices
- 12 boards, 0.45 to 7 mm
Free to design and to check in 3D. €2.50 for the PDF, €3.50 for the DXF or SVG.
What this box is, in other words
Cartons that hold more than a tuck bottom can carry, packed by hand in small runs: jars, bottles, candles, kits. No glue on the bottom, so it can be made on any cutting table.
How it closes. Fold the two small flaps in, then the front flap, then the back flap. The back flap has two tabs that slide in under the front flap, and the front flap has a tongue that slides in under the back flap. Each large flap is held by the other. The top closes with a tuck flap.
Worth knowing. The bottom is cut in five strips across the length: small flap, tab, tongue, tab, small flap. Under about 50 mm of length those strips get narrow and the tabs are fiddly to push in; the tool says so in the notes.
Also called
1-2-3 bottom snap lock bottom lock bottom carton snap bottom self-locking bottom 123 bottom folding carton snap lock lock bottom no glue heavy
Same construction, different trade. If you came looking for one of those, this is it.
How this one is built
- 1-2-3 snap-lock bottom: fold the two minor flaps in, then the front major, then the back major, pushing its two tabs in under the front major as the front tongue goes under the back one. No glue.
- Tuck top: the closing panel and tuck flap on the back panel.
- The tuck flap is 1.90 mm narrower on each side than the closing panel - a full caliper plus clearance - so it slides past the side walls and the glue seam.
- Closing order: dust flaps in, closing panel over them, tuck flap behind the wall.
Board options
The drawing changes when you change the board: thickness compensation is built into every fold, so a 4 mm C-flute blank is not the same shape as a 0.45 mm carton blank.
- F-flute corrugated (0.8 mm)
- E-flute corrugated (1.5 mm)
- B-flute corrugated (3.0 mm)
- C-flute corrugated (4.0 mm)
- EB double wall (4.5 mm)
- BC double wall (7.0 mm)
- SBS / GC1 board 350 gsm (0.45 mm)
- FBB / GC2 board 400 gsm (0.55 mm)
- Kraft / GD2 board 400 gsm (0.50 mm)
- Greyboard 1.0 mm (rigid)
- Prototype board 1.0 mm
- Prototype board 2.0 mm
Questions about this box
- What is a 1-2-3 bottom?
- A lock bottom that closes in three folds without glue, also called a snap-lock bottom. The name is the order: the small flaps, then one large flap, then the other, whose tabs go in under the first.
- What is the ECMA code for a snap-lock bottom?
- ECMA A55.20.01.03. ECMA files the 1-2-3 bottom under self-locking envelope closures (A55); the .20 is the tuck top this tool draws.
- Is this dieline free?
- Designing it and folding it in 3D are free and need no account. Downloading it is paid: €2.50 for the PDF to print and measure on paper, and €3.50 for a production file - DXF or SVG - because those are the ones that go to a cutting table.
- What is a dieline?
- The flat drawing a box is cut from. It shows where the knife cuts, where the board is creased to fold, and where it is perforated. A die maker turns it into a steel rule die; a plotter or laser cuts it directly. It is also written as "die line" or "die cut template".
- What file format does a die maker need?
- DXF, almost always. Ours is R12 DXF at 1:1 in millimetres with cut, crease, reverse crease and perforation each on their own layer, which is what a cutting table expects. The SVG is the same geometry for Illustrator, Affinity, Inkscape and laser software.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Yes. The files are yours: modify them, print them, make any number of boxes from them. No attribution and no licence fee, ever.
What you can change
12 parameters on the first screen, 8 more behind advanced settings.
- Dimension mode
- Length (L)
- Width (W)
- Height (H)
- Board caliper (t)
- Top
- Gable rise — Height of the roof above the walls. The height (H) is the wall height.
- Handle panel height
- Hand hole
- Bottom
- Tuck direction
- Tuck flap corners