How do I work out the side length?

For a hexagon the distance across the flats is 1.73 times the side length, and across the points is exactly twice it. So a 50 mm side gives a box 87 mm across the flats and 100 mm across the points. Type the side length and the drawing follows.

Can I make an octagon or a pentagon instead?

Yes — the number of sides is a field, and anything from three to twelve works. This page just opens it on six because that is the one people ask for by name.

How does the lid fit?

It is a second wall strip and disc, drawn slightly larger than the base — by the clearance you set plus two board thicknesses, because the wall stands inside it on both sides. Set the lid height to zero for an open tub.

How much does a hexagon box hold?

The floor area of a hexagon is about 2.6 times the side length squared, so a 50 mm side gives 6,495 square millimetres of floor. Multiply by the height for the volume: at 80 mm tall that is very close to 520 ml.

Drawn end to end, usually not: the wall is one strip six side lengths long, so at a 50 mm side with a lid it runs to about 325 by 405 mm, over A4 both ways. Printed, yes. Pick A4 and it comes out on three sheets — the wall in two numbered sections, then the base with both halves of the lid wall, then the lid top. Every piece is whole and at full size, and the wall sections glue end to end on the seam the wall already had, so there is nothing to tape.

Hexagon Box With Lid Template — Free PDF

A hexagon box is the polygonal box, set to six

This is not a separate template. It is the polygonal box generator opened on six sides, a 50 mm side length and a lid — the settings people mean when they search for a hexagon box. Change any of them above and it keeps working; turn the sides up to eight and you have an octagonal box.

What you get

Four pieces: a wall strip with a fold at every corner and fixing flaps along the bottom, a hexagonal base, then the same pair again a little larger for the lid. Roll the wall into a loop, glue the end tab inside the first panel, fold the flaps in and glue the base down on top of them.

Sizes worth knowing

Across the flats is 1.73 × the side length.
Across the points is 2 × the side length.
The wall strip is six side lengths long plus the glue tab, so a 50 mm side needs a little over 300 mm of paper across. If that is wider than your sheet, the tool prints the wall in numbered sections that glue end to end at a corner, each section whole on its page.

Why six sides and not eight

A hexagon is one of only three regular shapes that tile a flat surface with no gaps at all — the reason honeycomb is hexagonal, and the reason a tray of hexagon boxes packs into a carton with almost nothing wasted between them. Round boxes of the same width leave gaps at every contact point; hexagons leave none.

Going above six costs you that and buys little. Each extra side is another fold in the wall strip, every fold carries a small error, and those errors accumulate around the loop until the two ends no longer meet cleanly. Eight sides is still comfortable by hand. Twelve is a job for a scoring board or a cutting machine.

Working out whether your thing fits

The number that matters is across the flats, because that is the narrowest way through the box. A candle jar 80 mm across needs a hexagon of at least 80 ÷ 1.73 = 46 mm side. A 50 mm side measures 86.6 mm across the flats, so it leaves the jar about 6 mm of room — roughly right once the wall thickness is taken off.

For volume, a hexagon's floor area is 2.6 times the side length squared. A 50 mm side gives 6,495 mm² of floor, so at 80 mm tall it holds very close to 520 ml — a useful figure when you are filling one with sweets, bath salts or coffee and need a weight for the label.

It will not fit on A4, and that is normal

The wall is a single strip six side lengths long, so paper runs out faster than you would expect. At a 50 mm side with a 25 mm lid, the whole drawing comes to about 325 × 405 mm — over A4 in both directions, whichever way you turn it. A hexagon box has to drop to roughly a 25 mm side before it fits an A4 sheet whole.

That is the drawing laid out end to end, and it is no longer what you have to print. Pick A4 and the hexagon box comes out on three sheets: the wall in two numbered sections on the first, the base and both halves of the lid wall on the second, and the lid top on the third. Each piece is whole, each prints at full size, and there is nothing to tape — the wall sections glue end to end on the seam the wall already had. A 50 mm hexagon box off A4 is simply a thing you can do now.

Only a design that really is one piece has nothing to share out, and one of those that is bigger than the paper is never split: the tool offers bigger paper or a smaller size. A hexagon box is not one of them.

Folding a six-panel wall

The wall is one long strip with a fold every side length and a 120° corner at each of them. Three things make it come out round rather than lumpy:

Score every fold before you roll any of them. Once the strip is curved you cannot get a ruler along it.
Run the strip along the grain of the card if it has one — folds across the grain crack, and there are six of them here.
Glue the closing tab last, with the base already tacked in place to hold the shape. Closing the loop first leaves you fighting the base into a hexagon that has already decided what shape it wants to be.

Questions

How do I work out the side length?: For a hexagon the distance across the flats is 1.73 times the side length, and across the points is exactly twice it. So a 50 mm side gives a box 87 mm across the flats and 100 mm across the points. Type the side length and the drawing follows.
Can I make an octagon or a pentagon instead?: Yes — the number of sides is a field, and anything from three to twelve works. This page just opens it on six because that is the one people ask for by name.
How does the lid fit?: It is a second wall strip and disc, drawn slightly larger than the base — by the clearance you set plus two board thicknesses, because the wall stands inside it on both sides. Set the lid height to zero for an open tub.
How much does a hexagon box hold?: The floor area of a hexagon is about 2.6 times the side length squared, so a 50 mm side gives 6,495 square millimetres of floor. Multiply by the height for the volume: at 80 mm tall that is very close to 520 ml.
Will it fit on A4?: Drawn end to end, usually not: the wall is one strip six side lengths long, so at a 50 mm side with a lid it runs to about 325 by 405 mm, over A4 both ways. Printed, yes. Pick A4 and it comes out on three sheets — the wall in two numbered sections, then the base with both halves of the lid wall, then the lid top. Every piece is whole and at full size, and the wall sections glue end to end on the seam the wall already had, so there is nothing to tape.

The full polygonal box, any number of sides · Round box · All box templates

Hexagon box with a lid