Custom 3D Print Organizer Box

I recently purchased a bunch of colored jump rings for jewelry making (the ones I used for thje Layered Necklace and the Long Wrap Necklace) but they were all in individual baggies. I wanted to keep them organized and didn't want them to get damaged but opening and closing the bagas over and over was kind of a pain and wasn't a great way to keep them organized.

I thought about purchasing an inexpensive bead storage container but thought since I had a 3D printer and lots of natural/clear filament, I might as well make a custom one. I will share the custom storage container I made and also just talk about how you can make one for the specific items you have to store.

Instructable 361

• Tinkercad
• 3D Printer - I have a Prusa MK3
• Natural Filament - you can use what you want, but I thought since I had natural or clear, it would be nice since that is what a lot of storage containers are made of. The thickness of the container makes it so you can't see perfectly through it, but you can get an idea of what's in it.
• Elastic - 1/4"
• Hot Glue

*Any Amazon links are from the Amazon Associates Program.

To start, I needed a general idea of how big the cavities in the container would be. Since my jump rings were already in baggies, I tried to hold them tight and used a calipers to get an idea of the length, width, and depth. For my container, I didn't need to cavities to be exact, I just needed to make sure they could hold what I had.

I figured mine would need to be at least 38mm by 47mm by 18mm. This made the volume of my little cube to be 32,148mm. I decided to just stick with the dimensions I had, but I could have used my volume and tried with different dimensions as long as the ending volume of the cavity was at least that much.

Now that I knew my dimensions, it was time to make my container.

1 & 2: In Tinkercad, I started with the basic dimensions I found when measuring my baggie. Next I made the cavity deeper (to compensate for any inaccuracies and the cover) and increased the radius to give the edges curves. Regular bead organizers can come with sharp corners in the cavities, but the good ones, I think, are curved. This makes it easier to pull out items that are small as you just drag them up the curve rather than them getting stuck in the edge.

3: Once I had my size, I needed to duplicate it. I needed at least 10 cavities, so I went with an even 12, 3 by 4. I duplicated it across until I had 4 and then I duplicated those 4 down so I had 3 rows.

4: Next I needed the container. I made it slightly bigger than the total area of the cavities, and I added some to the top and bottom edges because I needed this for later indents.

5: I added MetaFillets to all the corners (from the Shape Generators section of the Shapes Panel) to just give it a nicer finish and no sharp corners.

6: I duplicated it and changed the cavities to bumps which I then made thinner for the cover. I wanted each cavity to have a bump that went into it to help hold things in place. I made those 1cm smaller on each edge and then thinner overall.

7: I used the MetaFillet again to make the grooves the elastic would go into. I lined them up so that they would work smoothly with the cover as well.

(I only made enough grooves for two bands of elastic to go around. It could have also been helpful to have 1 or 2 go around the box the opposite way.)

8: I duplicated these so there were 4 for the container and 4 more in the exact same spot for the cover.

9: My finished box with the cover transparent.

Also, the top and bottom of the container are only about 1mm or 5 layers thick. I did this mostly to save on filament because it really didn't need to be thicker than this and because the thinner it is, the easier it is to see through the neutral filament.

Once it was all designed, it was time to print. I did go through one test one that I wasn't 100% happy with and then had the final one.

Here you can get a better look at the elastic groove. My first version had grooves that weren't too deep and I just felt the elastic moved to easily.

Cutting and glueing the elastic strap is pretty straightforward. You don't want it too tight that it is going to want to snap but you also don't want it too loose that it will slip off easily. I used hot glue because it's easy and dries quickly.

And the finished container! You can see how nicely the original baggie fits into the cavity and overall I'm really happy with the result. The bumps on the inside of the cover fit in the cavities fairly well and help hold the cover in place along with the elastic.

You can see through the bottom better because the top has the bumps that go into each cavity.