Category: 3D Printing
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Print your own LEGO Technic-compatible parts
Eleven years ago, I released LEGO.scad, an OpenSCAD library for generating 3D-printable LEGO-compatible bricks. Today, I present to you Technic.scad, an OpenSCAD library for generating 3D-printable LEGO Technic-compatible parts. Technic.scad can generate axles, pins, pin connectors, hubs, beams, bushings, elbows, gears, tires and wheels. All of the pieces are customizable, so you could generate nearly…
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A cabinet for art supplies and arf supplies
This weekend, I finished building a craft cabinet to hold all of our kids’ art supplies; plus, it has a built-in faucet for refilling our dog’s water dish so we don’t have to carry it to the sink every day. The faucet for the dog dish is spring-loaded, so it only runs while it’s being…
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Today’s Functional Print: Fitting round cups in a square drawer
I recently learned about Gridfinity, a modular open-source storage system created by Zack Freedman. It uses a baseplate grid of 42mm squares; you can 3D-print pre-existing bin designs, or you can design your own custom containers to fit into the grid. Our silverware drawer has been in flux since I remodeled our kitchen in 2023,…
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Today’s Functional Print: Baluster Retrofit Hardware
I’m in the process of remodeling the stairway in my house. I wanted to replace the old wooden balusters, some of which had broken and been repaired multiple times, with new metal balusters. Pictured above: the old balusters, minus the most-recently broken one that is missing. Ignore the green tape and in-progress trim. The old…
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Today’s Functional Print: Filter Cage for the Blueair Blue Pure 311 Auto Air Purifier
The Blueair Blue Pure 311 Auto air purifier requires a plastic cage to support the filter. Theoretically, if you accidentally throw away the plastic cage when you change the filter, you will be unable to use the air purifier. Theoretically, if you have a friend with a 3D printer, you could ask them to design…
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Today’s Functional Print: Radio Knobs
Our GMC Acadia has a habit of losing its knobs. Luckily, Thingiverse user redpelon had the same problem and designed replacement knobs. I printed a pair and they fit perfectly.
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Today’s Functional Print: Microwave Feet
You know how your microwave slides around on the countertop because its hard plastic feet don’t grip on the smooth quartz? Same! To solve this problem, I had tried putting little adhesive pads under the existing feet, but the surface area was too small to resist the force of the door opening and shutting. So,…
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Today’s Functional Print: A Custom Birdseed Funnel
We have a birdfeeder that looks like a barn, and you refill it by pouring birdseed through the chimney. This is prone to spilled seed, and a regular funnel often clogs with the larger sunflower seeds. To solve this, I designed and printed a custom square funnel: It’s square to both create the largest possible…
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Today’s Functional Print: Adjustable Shelving Leg Inserts
In today’s adjustable shelving news, I’ve printed an insert to join two vertical sections of a boltless adustable shelving unit. The part looks like this, pictured next to an original: To make it easier to print, I split it into halves and nested the parts, printing four full inserts at a time: The shelving unit…
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Shaker-Style Jewelry Cabinet
I built this Shaker-style jewelry cabinet for my wife. You’ll never guess what’s inside… If you’d like the plans for this cabinet, you can find them on Etsy. The cabinet box itself is only 1 3/4″ deep. These are the four sides; the top is shorter because it won’t be mitered, since the top of…
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I Built a Shoe Cabinet
Our front entryway usually looks something like this: Those are bins to hold shoes; they’re uncharacteristically empty in this picture, but with as many as seven kids in the house at any given time, they’re usually overflowing (and not nice to look at). We decided to get a shoe cabinet to keep the shoes (and…
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Functional Print and CNC Carving Mashup: Mini Air-Hockey Pucks
In today’s Don Rickles news, I 3D-printed and CNC carved some mini air-hockey pucks. We were given a mini air-hockey table this week, but it didn’t have any pucks, and after buying some at Walmart, we learned that the table didn’t use full-size pucks. After five minutes in OpenSCAD and half an hour of machining,…
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Look at what I did in the bathroom!
My wife requested a cabinet to hang above the toilet in our downstairs bathroom, and she sent me a link to this Shanty 2 Chic design as an example of what she wanted. Usually, I would draw up my own plans, customizing them based on the materials I have and the space I’m filling. This time,…
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I Built a Set of Cabinets with CNC-Carved Doors
The area above our washer and dryer (not pictured) was mostly wasted space, so my wife asked me to build some custom cabinets. (Actually, she said, “Can you just buy some cabinets for above the washer and dryer? You really don’t have to build custom ones. I just want something better than this shelf. Anything.…
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Today’s Functional Print: Twist-In Shelf Supports
In today’s “shake it up baby” news, I’ve printed some hard-to-find twist-in shelf supports. The shelves in our new living room have vertical metal tracks that don’t just accept a push-in support clip; the support must be turned 90º in order to interlock with the track. These supports aren’t sold at any of the national…
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This is a post. It’s a post about a post.
We just moved into a new house, and the 20-year-old signpost is showing its age. It had deteriorated at the bottom, so it was no longer set in a hole and was just leaning against a tree. I decided to restore it and make use of a gift that the previous homeowners had left us.…
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Create LEGO-compatible Angle Plates with LEGO.scad
In response to a comment here, I wrote the first OpenSCAD module for generating complex brick shapes using my LEGO.scad project. LEGO.scad is great for creating bricks and wings of all shapes and sizes, but it isn’t suitable for making complicated shapes like angle plates. LEGO sells 90º angle plates (pictured); the new module can…
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Today’s Functional Print: Baby Gate Support
In today’s “No, don’t go up there” news, I’ve printed a custom baby gate support. Based on a design by Thingiverse user Printed_Solid, this support allows a pressure gate to be used against a post without attaching a wall cup, which would leave a permanent screw hole. I updated the original design to have longer…
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Today’s Functional Print: Board Game Piece Bases
In today’s “do you think this is some sort of game?” news, I’ve designed and printed some boardgame piece bases. These were printed specifically for my son’s “Thomas and Friends Tracks and Trestles” game, which was missing two of its bases, but the design is customizable to fit almost any size gamepiece. The OpenSCAD script…
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Today’s Functional Print: Stove Knob
In today’s “customizable knob” news, I’ve designed and printed a customizable knob. When we moved into our current house, the knob to control the stovetop fan was missing: After six months of procrastinating and one hour of OpenSCAD, it now looks like this: Now I don’t have to turn on the fan with a pliers!…