I’ve been playing around with various options for organizing all of the assorted bits and pieces that come along with makin stuff. And while I love the weight rating and versatility of wire shelving, I don’t want to spend a months pay on organizers from U-Line.
This (mostly) printed, modular organizer is my most recent attempt at tackling this problem in my shop, and so far it’s looking to fit my needs quite well.
The model files...they ain't pretty, but you're welcome to 'em!
Original Build for wire shelves
Printables | Thangs | Thingiverse
BOM
- Printed Parts:
- (2) - BearingBlock.stl - 55g - I used Sunlu PETG (for all of the below) @ ~$17/kg
- (2) - BBRetainer - 30g
- (1) - BaseCap - 22g
- (1) - TopCap_Short (47mm) - 28g OR TopCap_Long (111mm) - 53g
- (x) - Tree_Long (180mm) - 98g
- (x) - Tree_Short (90mm) - 50g
- (x) - CompartmentTrays - 200-300g, depending on # of compartments
- (x) - SmallTray - 80g
- COTs
- (2) - 30205 Tapered Roller ~$5.5ea
- (12) - M5 Heat Set Insert - I like these or these personally
- (12) - M5x20 BHCS (or whatever head type ya like). For this one I used some from this kit
All you need to do is figure out what combo of lengths meets your needs, print your parts, melt in the heat sets in the bottoms of the bearing blocks, and you're good to go
Printables | Thangs | Thingiverse
Free-Standing Susan
Printables | Thangs | Thingiverse
Because my laziness knows no bounds, I decided that having to pay attention to which specific parts I need, walking to the shelf, getting said parts, and walking back was FAR too much work. So I clearly need some way to move some compartments to the work table as I trial and error fastener sizes after forgetting what I designed for...¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Enter the 'Free-Standing Susan", aka a free-standing base using the same tree and compartment pieces.
The above x-sec shows the gist of the assembly. Instead of compressing the 'tree' between two opposing tapered bearings, this one clamps the tapered bearings between the Base Tree and Base Cap. The fixed races are pressed into the Base, as shown in the below pics.
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BOM
- Printed Parts:
- (1) - Base.stl - I used Sunlu PETG (for all of the below) @ ~$17/kg
- (1) - BaseCap.stl
- (1) - BaseTree.stl
- COTs
- (2) - 30205 Tapered Roller ~$5.5ea
- (1) - M5 Heat Set Insert - I like these or these personally
- (1) - M5x16 BHCS (or whatever head type ya like). For this one I used some from this kit
Printables | Thangs | Thingiverse
Attachments
Cable Hangers
I realized that if I pack my mess of cables onto one of these Productive Susans it would free up a whole shelf....I also really need to purge some cables...but guess this project will help me procrastinate on that for a bit longer.
Single Row
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Double Row
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I'm using the single row style for larger/longer cables like ethernet, HDMI, and power bricks, and the double row style for all flavor of USB, HDMI micro, etc.
So far I definitely like the compactness and organization it offers. The only thing I'm not sure about, is if i will find the stack of cables on a post setup frustrating when wanting a cable sittin in the middle. I've tried to minimize the potential for that by keeping 'like kind' on each post, so we shall see.