I have been participating in the open source software community for a while. My expedition into 3D modeling and printing has brought me to a new type of open community.
Finding Inspiration
The Google Feed on my phone popped up an article on all3dp.com called “The 30 Most Useful Things to Print in PLA.” I was intrigued, so I clicked on it and read through.
There were a number of useful items, but many of them are duplicates of things I already owned. Phone stands and Raspberry Pi cases are great first prints. However, I usually buy mine to get built-in wireless charging on phone stands and various features on Pi cases.
The third item in that article, however, almost spoke to me through the screen.
A Stack of Cards
I recently went through my office desk drawers in an attempt to organize. What I quickly realized was I had a collection of USB, SD, and MicroSD cards. The MicroSDs I’ve amassed as a side effect of my Raspberry Pi projects. The USB sticks are just “good things to have around,” especially in an era where none of my laptops even have a CD drive anymore. I can load up an OS on a bootable USB and reload the laptop.
The problem I had was, well, they all sat in a small container in my drawer. There was little organization, just a bucket of parts. As I’m browsing the all3dp.com article, I came across the USB SD and MicroSD Holder. The design had such beauty in its simplicity. No frills, just slots for USB, SD, and MicroSD cards in a way that makes them organized and easily accessible.
Making It My Own
Sure, I could have printed it as is and been done with my journey. But, well, what fun is that! I took a look at the design and added a few requirements of my own.
- I wanted something that fit relatively neatly in my desk drawer, and used the space that I had.
- I needed some additional slots for all storage types.
- Most importantly, I wanted some larger spacing in between items to allow the bear claws that I called hands easy access to the smaller cards.
With these new requirements, I fired up Fusion 360 and got to work. I used some of the measurements from Lalo_Solo’s design for the card slots, but added some additional spacing in between for easy access. I extended the block to fit the width of my desk, with a enough padding to grab the block out of the desk without an issue. That extension was enough to get the additional storage I needed.
And with that, I sent the design off to Pittsburgh3DPrints to get printed. A few days later, I picked up my print.
It turned out great! I brought it home and loaded it up with a few of my USB sticks and SD cards, as seen above. I have a few more, but not enough to fill up the entire holder, which means I have some room for expansion.
I chuckled a little when I picked up the print: at the shop, I noticed another print of my design on the desk with a few USB/SD cards in it. It felt awesome to see that the design is useful for more than just me!
Dropping the Remix
Like DJ Khalid, I wanted to drop the remix on the world. I went about creating a Thingiverse.com account and posted the new design file, along with the above picture. With Thingiverse, you can post things as “remixes” of existing designs. This is a great way to attribute inspiration to the original designers, and keep in line with the Creative Commons license.
With a new Thingiverse account, I will work on posting the designs for the other projects I printed. At this point, nothing I did was groundbreaking, but it’s nice to share… you never know when someone might find your design useful.