Desk Organizer With Mini Light

With school now well underway, my desk is a total mess and my tools are getting in the way of my school supplies. I used Fusion 360 to design this desk organizer in the hopes of resolving this issue. It has a rectangular space that I'm using to hold my various pliers, a couple of screwdrivers and similar items. That space could also be used for more conventional things found on a desk like pencils, markers, etc. There are also 4 USB slots. I thought it would be fun to have a small light in the desk organizer, so there's a 5 mm LED soldering to a battery holder with a switch. The design is my entry in the Back to School contest (I go to Harrisonburg High School in Virginia, USA).

I've attached my Fusion 360 file and an STL file of the design to this step.

Tools/Software:

• Fusion 360
• Cura (or whatever slicer you prefer)
• 3D Printer
• Soldering Iron
• Heat Gun
• Diagonal cutters
• Wire strippers (optional)
• Helping hands (optional)

Materials:

• 3D printer filament
• Two pieces of wire, about 10 inches (stranded is usually easier to work with than solid core, I just use speaker wire)
• A 5 mm LED (I used white, but again, color is up to you, 3 mm LEDs will also work)
• CR2032 Battery
• Button Battery Holder with Switch (I use these)
• Solder
• Heat shrink (you want it a little bigger than your wires)
• Double sided foam tape

1. Draw a rectangle that is 75 mm x 111 mm and extrude it 60 mm.
2. Create a new sketch on top of the rectangle and draw another rectangle starting in a corner. The new rectangle should be 36 mm along the 111 mm dimension and take up the full length of the 75 mm dimension. Extrude this by cutting down 40 mm.
3. Start another new sketch on the top surface of the desk organizer. Cut out another rectangular hole by drawing a 69 mm x 69 mm rectangle that is 3mm from each edge of the upper section, then use the extrude tool to cut out the rectangle into a 55 mm deep hole.

The wires run through a channel underneath the desk organizer to hide them. In this step, we're going to create a spot for the battery holder, holes and a channel for the wires to run through and an arch shaped piece that holds the LED. The pictures show the dimensions and are numbered by step.

1. Draw a 14 mm circle on the lower section of the desk organizer and extrude it as a cut all the way through.
2. Draw another circle on the same plane, 32 mm in diameter. Extrude it as a cut 2 mm into the piece.
3. Inside the 2mm cut, draw a third circle in the center, 14 mm in diameter and extrude it as a cut all the way through.
4. Create a work plane offset from the back of the desk organizer by 13. Use the spline tool to create an arch shape. The starting point should be the center of the first circle you drew in this step. This part does not have to be precise, it should jut generally resemble an arch and be slightly taller than the rest of the desk organizer.
5. Draw two more circles, 14 mm and 20 mm in diameter, both centered at the spline starting point.
6. Use the sweep tool on the ring shape and spline you just created.
7. Rotate the view so you are looking at the underside of the desk organizer. Draw a rectangle connecting the 2 circles, but use the line tool and tangent constraint as pictured. Extrude it as a 3 mm cut.

Following the picture, create 4 rectangles 5mm x 15 mm spaced 3.2 mm apart. They should be 2 mm from the edge. Extrude all 4 rectangles by cutting into the desk organizer 15 mm.

Use supports to print this. It's a long print, but you can drop the infill low since strength really isn't crucial here. With the settings I used, it took about 7 hours. Take care with your support settings. I had trouble getting my supports to stay on the bed, which fortunately had only a minor impact on the final print.

To make the circuit, we're going to solder the LED legs, apply some heat shrink, insert the wires into the desk organizer, then solder the battery board on.

1. Cut off 2 pieces of wire, at least 10 in long and strip the ends.
2. Wrap one end of one wire around the positive leg of the LED. Solder it in place
3. Repeat with the other wire and the negative LED leg.
4. Put a piece of heat shrink over at least one of the solder joints and use a heat gun to shrink it into place. This will prevent the circuit from shorting out.
5. Slide the wires into the arched piece, run them through the channel on the bottom and up through the hole below where the battery holder will rest, then slide the positive wire through one of the positive terminals and the negative wire through the diagonally opposite negative terminal of the battery board. Keep sliding the wire until the battery board is in position, then solder the positive and negative wires to their respective terminals.

*You may have to cut and strip the wires again so that the metal wires are touching the metal terminals. Be careful not to strip too much insulation or the metal on metal contact below the battery holder could short out the circuit.

**It will be easier to insert/remove the battery later if you orient the battery holder so that the switch is on the side with the large square space.

Slide a CR2032 battery into the battery holder, flip the switch and test your circuit. If it works, trim any excess wire with diagonal cutters. If it it's not working, you can try to troubleshoot with a multimeter or just start the soldering over. To secure the battery holder, take a small piece of double sided foam tape and stick it between the battery holder and the desk organizer.

You should now have a desk organizer with a working light. I hope you enjoyed this project. Have a good day!