Hi all,
If you're anything like me and struggled to find spaces for the <ahem> insane </ahem> number of fasteners lurking in rafters, drawers, buckets, or refuse piles in the "garage places no-one dares to speak of" (you know what I'm talking about). If, like me, you've never quite found the ideal solution commercially. Can I humbly show you what has helped my rather desperate space situation?
Yep, these are 3D printable, parametrically adjustable, drawer organiser bins. As long as you have a square or rectangular drawer, there's no left-over space from the 42mm grid requirement of "Gridfinity", no specifically sized Ikea furniture needed for maximum spatial efficiency. You simply type in the size of the inside space of the drawers, and then specify how many rows/columns of bins you'd like the drawer space to be divided by, based on the size of the item you want to store in each bin.
This drawer may not look like much, but if you keep your screws in the clear plastic (hangable) packets that most "big box" stores sell them in... this drawer's worth of packets (even neatly stacked/packed) took up a bin that's 600mm long, 300mm wide, and 800mm high. (2' x 1' x 2' 6" or so) This drawer is 700mm long, 550mm wide and 87mm. That's a 67% reduction in used space. Now admittedly, I found quite a few packets of identical screws... some almost completely empty (which obviously wastes a lot of space), so if you find yourself in a somewhat disorganised state, you might not realise that there's much more wasted space going on than you might imagine.
I'm not going to lie, this is not the cheapest storage solution, nor is it the easiest. However, commercial offerings have a tendency to add up very quickly, particularly when you get to hundreds of bins across several drawers. Then that 3D printer, and the filament costs starts looking less insane. Do a few tool chests, buy your filament in bulk from eBay during a sale.. and you're actually ahead. But only if you don't value your time printing all that.
It's not for everyone though.... I was doing a product review for a 3D printer at the time, so I designed this model to get my workshop organised while putting the printer through reliability testing (admittedly for months on end). So I was being paid, the printers were supplied, and about 30% of my filament was paid for by work.
If you have access to a 3D printer and you'd like to download my model for free and have a tinker (I recommend a free hobbyist account with Fusion360) I've included the files and instructions here:
www.thingiverse.com
My better half has organised her sewing room (buttons, pins, bobbins, cotton reels/spools, etc) with them. I've sorted out my screws, machine screws, bolts, nuts, washers, nails, various consumables, Dremel/rotary tool bits, tool drawers in the workshop. They've even been used to organise rechargeable batteries in our charging station.... and they keep getting put everywhere wherever "order is lacking".
Anyway, I hope you find it interesting.
Harmo.
If you're anything like me and struggled to find spaces for the <ahem> insane </ahem> number of fasteners lurking in rafters, drawers, buckets, or refuse piles in the "garage places no-one dares to speak of" (you know what I'm talking about). If, like me, you've never quite found the ideal solution commercially. Can I humbly show you what has helped my rather desperate space situation?
Yep, these are 3D printable, parametrically adjustable, drawer organiser bins. As long as you have a square or rectangular drawer, there's no left-over space from the 42mm grid requirement of "Gridfinity", no specifically sized Ikea furniture needed for maximum spatial efficiency. You simply type in the size of the inside space of the drawers, and then specify how many rows/columns of bins you'd like the drawer space to be divided by, based on the size of the item you want to store in each bin.
This drawer may not look like much, but if you keep your screws in the clear plastic (hangable) packets that most "big box" stores sell them in... this drawer's worth of packets (even neatly stacked/packed) took up a bin that's 600mm long, 300mm wide, and 800mm high. (2' x 1' x 2' 6" or so) This drawer is 700mm long, 550mm wide and 87mm. That's a 67% reduction in used space. Now admittedly, I found quite a few packets of identical screws... some almost completely empty (which obviously wastes a lot of space), so if you find yourself in a somewhat disorganised state, you might not realise that there's much more wasted space going on than you might imagine.
I'm not going to lie, this is not the cheapest storage solution, nor is it the easiest. However, commercial offerings have a tendency to add up very quickly, particularly when you get to hundreds of bins across several drawers. Then that 3D printer, and the filament costs starts looking less insane. Do a few tool chests, buy your filament in bulk from eBay during a sale.. and you're actually ahead. But only if you don't value your time printing all that.
It's not for everyone though.... I was doing a product review for a 3D printer at the time, so I designed this model to get my workshop organised while putting the printer through reliability testing (admittedly for months on end). So I was being paid, the printers were supplied, and about 30% of my filament was paid for by work.
If you have access to a 3D printer and you'd like to download my model for free and have a tinker (I recommend a free hobbyist account with Fusion360) I've included the files and instructions here:
Parametric Drawer Organizer Boxes by harmo_hammer
Do you use a CAD program capable of opening f3d (Fusion) or STEP files?Are you a new or relatively lazy/efficient Fusion360 user? (Or could be convinced to sign up for a free account?)Do you want to create custom drawer organizing bins/buckets for ANY (and I do mean, ANY) sized drawer you may...
www.thingiverse.com
My better half has organised her sewing room (buttons, pins, bobbins, cotton reels/spools, etc) with them. I've sorted out my screws, machine screws, bolts, nuts, washers, nails, various consumables, Dremel/rotary tool bits, tool drawers in the workshop. They've even been used to organise rechargeable batteries in our charging station.... and they keep getting put everywhere wherever "order is lacking".
Anyway, I hope you find it interesting.
Harmo.