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AN INERT GAS GLOVE BOX FOR 87 CANADIAN DOLLARS, AGAINST COMMERCIAL BOXES AT 15,120

A published design that brings oxygen inside a plastic tote down to 19 ppm in twenty minutes, for 87.51 Canadian dollars against commercial boxes at up to 15,120 Canadian dollars.

by Maryam Mottaghi and Joshua M. Pearce

FULL CAD BOM FIRMWARE DOCS

ScienceWorkshop

Built with3D printing

difficulty
●●●○○
time
a weekend
license
CERN-OHL-S-2.0 (hardware), GPL-3.0 (design files)
repo
repo FINISHED0 stars

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

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COMPAREE VERDICT

This is a peer-reviewed open-source glove box published in HardwareX by Maryam Mottaghi and Joshua M. Pearce at Western University. The entire working volume is a 74-quart plastic storage container fitted with 3D-printed arm holds that the gloves are clamped onto, a printed transfer chamber with caps for passing samples in and out, and a resin-printed hose barb for the inert gas line; off-the-shelf barb valves vent the gas. Instant epoxy and gear clamps make the seals. The published validation shows oxygen falling from about 3,520 ppm to 19 ppm in about 20 minutes and moisture dropping to zero when purged with nitrogen. The honest limitation is that this is not a rigid welded chamber and it cannot pull vacuum — it holds slight positive pressure only. The seal is only as good as your epoxy work and clamp tension. If you are comparing this to a commercial acrylic or stainless box with welded ports and a recirculating scrubber, those exist for a reason: they are more rigid, they recover faster after you open a port, and they hold tighter specs over weeks. This design is for someone who needs an inert atmosphere occasionally, has access to a 3D printer and a cylinder of nitrogen or argon, and does not mind re-purging between uses. The one thing most likely to go wrong is a leak around the arm holds or valves — the authors check every hole with soapy water and re-apply epoxy wherever bubbles appear.

GOOD TO KNOW

  • —STL and STEP files for all printed parts (arm holds, transfer chamber, chamber caps, hose barb) are on OSF under GNU GPL v3; the hardware is CERN OHL v2-S.
  • —Full bill of materials with supplier links in the published paper, DOI 10.1016/j.ohx.2025.e00702.
  • —Assembly protocol and purge test data included; no firmware (this is a passive chamber).
  • —Design files are GNU GPL v3, hardware under CERN OHL v2-S — both licences permit commercial use with attribution and share-alike.
  • —The paper walks through the build in numbered steps with photos of each stage, and an operation video is on OSF.
  • —No oxygen sensor is included in the 87.51 Canadian dollars figure — if you want to verify your own purge, that is a separate purchase.

Parts to buy

6 items

From our check of the build. Exact quantities and part numbers are in the creator’s BOM.

  • Sealed plastic storage containerFind
  • Long-cuff chemical gloves (Trionic)Find
  • Instant epoxyFind
  • Four stainless gear clampsFind
  • Two barb valvesFind
  • Tubing and a T-junctionFind

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Can I build this?

PrintArm holds, transfer chamber and its caps in PETG, plus a small resin-printed hose barb — STL and STEP files in the OSF repository.
BuySealed plastic storage container (authors used a 74-quart Sterilite hinged-lid box), long-cuff chemical gloves (Trionic), instant epoxy, four stainless gear clamps, two barb valves, tubing and a T-junction, and access to a cylinder of nitrogen or argon with a regulator and flow meter.
ToolsFDM 3D printer, drill and hole saw for the tote wall (sizes in the paper), screwdriver, and optionally a gas flow meter.
SkillsComfortable with 3D printing, cutting clean holes in a plastic tote without cracking it, and sealing with instant epoxy. No electronics or code. If you have never worked with compressed gas cylinders, read the safety data sheet for your inert gas and understand regulator operation before you start.
TimeA weekend: half a day printing the fittings, an evening drilling and sealing the tote, and a few hours for assembly and initial purge testing if you have access to an oxygen meter.
CostLow — the paper lists 87.51 Canadian dollars for the tote, gloves, epoxy, clamps, valves, tubing and filament. Not included, because the authors assume a lab already has them: a nitrogen cylinder (about 50 Canadian dollars in the paper) with regulator and flow meter, and an oxygen analyser (about 1,800 Canadian dollars) if you want to verify your purge.
SafetyInert gas displacement hazard: nitrogen and argon are asphyxiants with no warning properties. Use this in a ventilated space, run the barb-valve exhaust lines into a fume hood as the authors do, and never put your head inside the box while it is purging or filled. The tote is thin plastic, so keep the flow modest and never let the regulator push gas in with the vents closed — a mis-set regulator could crack the tote or blow a seal. If you are handling pyrophoric or toxic materials inside the box, the box does not replace fume hood ventilation or proper chemical training.

Build at your own risk. Projects involve tools, electronics and sometimes mains voltage — follow the creator’s safety notes.

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Gallery

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Start here

Navigation into the creator’s own docs — we don’t rewrite the guide, we route you to the source.

  1. 1.Read the published paper (The full HardwareX article (DOI 10.1016/j.ohx.2025.e00702) contains the bill of materials, assembly protocol, and purge test methodology.)
  2. 2.Download the design files (OSF repository with STL and STEP files for all printed parts, plus the authors' operation and oxygen/moisture validation videos. The bill of materials is in the paper.)
  3. 3.Print the fittings and source the tote(Print the arm holds, transfer chamber and caps in PETG or PLA (the authors used PETG) and the hose barb in resin. Buy the container — the authors used a 74-quart (about 70 L) Sterilite hinged-lid box, but any similar airtight storage box will work if you adjust the hole sizes.)
  4. 4.Assemble and seal(Follow the assembly protocol in the paper: cut the holes, fit the arm holds, transfer chamber, valves and hose barbs, seal them with instant epoxy, and clamp the gloves on with gear clamps. Leak-test every hole with soapy water before the first purge.)
  5. 5.Purge and verify(Connect your nitrogen or argon cylinder through a regulator and flow meter, fill the box quickly (the paper used 23 L/min for 3–4 minutes), then purge at about 4.7 L/min. If you have an oxygen meter, monitor the concentration; otherwise, purge for at least 20–30 minutes before use.)

Resources

Documentation, files and community threads for this build — we link straight to the original sources and never rehost the creator’s files.

KNOWN ISSUES

  • The 87.51 Canadian dollars figure does not include the inert gas or an oxygen analyser. The paper lists them separately as lab equipment it assumes you already have: about 50 Canadian dollars for a nitrogen cylinder and about 1,800 for an oxygen analyser, plus a regulator and flow meter.
  • The seal depends entirely on your epoxy work and clamp tension. Brush soapy water over every hole after assembly — wherever bubbles appear, apply more instant epoxy before you trust the box.
  • This is not a recirculating system — every time you open a port or remove your hands, you break the seal and need to re-purge. Budget extra gas if you will be opening it frequently.
  • The tote is thin plastic, not a rigid chamber. Keep the flow modest (the paper purged at about 4.7 L/min after a quick 23 L/min fill) and let the barb valves vent to a hood; leaks around the holes, not the tote itself, are what the authors had to fix.
  • If you do not have an oxygen meter, you are purging blind. The paper's 20-minute figure is based on its specific tote, its seal quality and its flow rate — yours may differ.
  • Handling pyrophoric materials (lithium metal, certain organometallics) inside a positive-pressure plastic box still requires proper training, a fume hood for the box itself, and a Class D fire extinguisher nearby. The box keeps air out; it does not make the chemistry safer if something goes wrong.

Can I use this for vacuum work or solvent purification?

No. This is a positive-pressure inert atmosphere box only. It is not rigid enough to hold vacuum, and it is not designed for recirculating solvents or scrubbing oxygen with a catalyst bed.

Do I need an oxygen analyser to use this?

Not strictly, but you are purging blind without one. The paper's test data is for their build; your seal quality and flow rate will differ. If you are handling materials that ignite above 100 ppm oxygen, verification is not optional.

What if I cannot source the exact Sterilite tote the authors used?

Any sealed storage box with a flat, rigid wall will work — cut the holes to suit your box and check every hole with soapy water after sealing. The authors publish STEP files alongside the STLs, so you can resize the arm holds and transfer chamber if needed.

How long does a purge last once the box is sealed?

That depends on your seal quality. The paper does not report long-term oxygen ingress rates, but expect some slow leak through the tote lid gasket and the glove material over hours to days. This is not a box you purge once and leave for a week.

Can I scale this up to a larger tote?

Yes — the authors say the design can be customised to the volume you need. Purge time and gas use grow with the box volume and depend on your starting oxygen level, so a much bigger tote will take proportionally longer and use more gas; the paper only tested its 74-quart box.

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Discussion1

FROM THE COMPAREE TEAM

The published test took oxygen from 3,520 ppm down to 19 ppm in about 20 minutes in a roughly 70-litre tote. What would you use this for that does not need a commercial glove box?

CompareeTEAM28d agoedited

Practical notes from our verification: the design files (STL and STEP) are on OSF, with the designs under GPL v3 and the hardware under CERN-OHL-S v2, and the paper carries photo-illustrated build steps plus operation and validation videos on OSF. The box is a 74-quart Sterilite tote (about 70 litres) with 3D-printed arm holds and transfer chamber in PETG, gloves held by gear clamps, and seams sealed with instant epoxy and checked with soapy water. The biggest cost surprise is what is not in the price: the roughly 88 Canadian dollars covers the box hardware only. The paper lists a nitrogen cylinder (about 50 Canadian dollars) and an oxygen analyzer (about 1,800 Canadian dollars) as auxiliary lab equipment it does not count, on the assumption that labs already have them. If you need to verify oxygen levels and do not have an analyzer, budget for that separately. Correction (4 October 2026): we re-checked this page line by line against the project's own repository, documentation and videos, and fixed errors in earlier versions.

Maryam Mottaghi and Joshua M. Pearce

Maryam Mottaghi and Joshua M. Pearce are researchers at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. They published this design in HardwareX to provide an accessible inert atmosphere solution for labs and makerspaces that cannot justify the capital cost of a commercial glove box but still need to handle air-sensitive materials.

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