Models Showcase: free 3D-printable organizers

By Krypto

Complexity

Simple

Kitchen Kitchen organisers

0

MAIN PURPOSE: Load tins at the top and take them from the bottom so the oldest is used first

Shops rotate stock so nothing goes out of date; this tower does it at home. New tins go in at the top and drop down the stack, and you always take the bottom one through the arch at the front, which is always the oldest. A slot up the front shows how many are left, so you know when to buy more. OLDEST FIRST is raised on the front.

Printing notes

42.1 cm³

Volume

52.3 g

Est. weight

9,028

Triangles

Takes flat tins up to 90 mm across (tuna, sardines, cat food). Print upright. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports. Large holes in the walls may need supports or good bridging.

AR view Open in app

By Krypto

Complexity

Simple

Desk & office Desk organisation

0

Tulou round-house organiser

MAIN PURPOSE: Sort desk things into twelve rooms round a courtyard, like a Fujian tulou

The Hakka people of Fujian built tulou: round earth fortresses where a whole village lived in a ring of identical rooms facing a shared courtyard, with a single gate. This organiser is a little tulou for the desk. Twelve wedge-shaped rooms ring the round courtyard, which takes a cup or a plant, and an arched gate opens into the front room. Give every family member, colour or project its own room.

Printing notes

216.6 cm³

Volume

268.6 g

Est. weight

2,288

Triangles

Prints flat with no supports. The gate leads into the front room. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports. Large holes in the walls may need supports or good bridging.

AR view Open in app

By Krypto

Complexity

Simple

Others Science & education

0

Ames-room illusion box

MAIN PURPOSE: Make two identical toys look like a giant and a dwarf through a peephole

Look through the peephole and the room looks like an ordinary box, but it is not: the back wall runs at a slant, so the left corner is twice as far away as the right. Put two identical figures in the back corners and one looks like a giant and the other like a dwarf. Move a figure along the back wall and it grows or shrinks before your eyes. It is the Ames room, invented in 1946 and used in films to make actors look tiny next to wizards.

Printing notes

251.3 cm³

Volume

311.6 g

Est. weight

3,408

Triangles

Print in white. Lay a sheet of tracing paper over the top as a ceiling to let light in. Prints as shown on its outline, no supports.

AR view Open in app

Preview of Cloud-chamber cosmic-ray base

By Krypto

Complexity

Simple

Others Science & education

0

Cloud-chamber cosmic-ray base

MAIN PURPOSE: See the trails of cosmic-ray particles in a home-made cloud chamber

Invisible particles from space pass through you every second, and this lets you see them. Put a slab of dry ice in the base, lay a 3 mm aluminium plate painted matt black on the ledge, and turn a clear plastic tub upside down on the plate with a strip of felt soaked in 99% isopropyl alcohol stuck inside its top. After ten minutes, turn off the lights and shine a torch in from the side: thin white trails appear and vanish as muons, alpha and beta particles streak through the alcohol mist, just as in the chambers that won Nobel prizes.

Printing notes

162.4 cm³

Volume

201.4 g

Est. weight

9,644

Triangles

Use gloves for dry ice and a well-aired room. Paint the aluminium plate matt black. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports.

AR view Open in app

Preview of Phone-screen photoelastic viewer

By Krypto

Complexity

Simple

Others Science & education

0

Phone-screen photoelastic viewer

MAIN PURPOSE: See the hidden stress in clear plastic as rainbows using a phone screen

Your phone screen gives out polarised light, which is half of a stress lab. Lay the phone in the bottom showing a white page, slide a piece of clear plastic in through the slot (a protractor, a CD case, a plastic fork) and put polariser film on the ledge above. Look down and the plastic lights up in rainbow bands wherever it is strained. Squeeze the fork and watch the colours race. Engineers use exactly this, called photoelasticity, to find weak spots in parts.

Printing notes

43.1 cm³

Volume

53.5 g

Est. weight

8,476

Triangles

Works with most LCD screens and many OLED ones. A sheet of polariser film or a pair of polarised sunglasses goes on the ledge. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports.

AR view Open in app

Preview of Snail-racing championship table

By Krypto

Complexity

Simple

Others Kids & play

0

Snail-racing championship table

MAIN PURPOSE: Race garden snails from the centre circle to the edge, championship style

Every July the village of Congham in Norfolk holds the World Snail Racing Championships, on a round table: the snails start in the middle and the first to reach the outer edge wins. This is the home version, with START engraved in the middle and FINISH round the edge. Line them up, say "ready, steady, slow!", and settle in. The record is two minutes for 13 inches, so bring snacks.

Printing notes

91.9 cm³

Volume

114.0 g

Est. weight

8,300

Triangles

Dampen the table before a race, mark each snail with a dab of washable paint, and return them to where you found them. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports.

AR view Open in app

By Krypto

Complexity

Simple

Others Geometric & decorative

0

Einstein-tile coaster

MAIN PURPOSE: Protect the table with coasters in the one shape that tiles without repeating

In 2023 an amateur mathematician found the shape people had searched for since the 1960s: the "hat", a single tile that covers a plane completely but never in a repeating pattern. Mathematicians call it an einstein, from the German for one stone. Each coaster is one hat. Lay a set out on the table and they fit together endlessly without the pattern ever repeating. It is a conversation piece, a puzzle and a coaster at once.

Printing notes

12.5 cm³

Volume

15.6 g

Est. weight

356

Triangles

Print a dozen or more in two colours; flip some over to fill the gaps, as the real tiling does. Prints as shown on its outline, no supports.

AR view Open in app

By Krypto

Complexity

Simple

Others Sustainable living

0

Spider-taxi rescue box

MAIN PURPOSE: Catch a spider against the wall and slide a card in to carry it outside

For people who like spiders outside and want them to stay alive. Put the open box over the spider on the wall or floor, slide a postcard in through the slot just under the rim, and it runs along the grooves inside to close the box completely. Carry the spider outside, pull the card and let it go. No squashing, no legs caught under the rim, and you never have to get close.

Printing notes

22.6 cm³

Volume

28.0 g

Est. weight

5,724

Triangles

Print in clear PETG so you can see the passenger. Use a postcard or playing card as the gate. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports.

AR view Open in app

By Krypto

Complexity

Simple

Others Outdoor & adventure

0

Rock-pool aquascope

MAIN PURPOSE: Look through the surface of rock pools and ponds without the glare

Ripples and reflections hide everything in a rock pool. Push this scope a little way into the water and look down the tube: the clear window at the bottom flattens the surface and the walls block the sky, so suddenly you can see crabs, anemones, shrimps and fish as if the water were glass. Hold it by the rim, and it works just as well in ponds and streams.

Printing notes

159.9 cm³

Volume

198.2 g

Est. weight

6,448

Triangles

PETG. Glue a 120 mm disc of 3 mm clear acrylic over the window with aquarium silicone. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports.

AR view Open in app

By Krypto

Complexity

Simple

Others Outdoor & adventure

0

Nordic ice-lantern mould

MAIN PURPOSE: Freeze a flower-shaped ring of ice to hold a candle on a winter night

In Finland and Sweden people line paths with ice lanterns on winter nights. Fill the ring between the two walls of this flower-shaped mould with water (add berries, leaves or petals for colour), freeze it outside or in the freezer, then dip it in warm water and the ice ring slips out. Stand it on the snow or a plate over a tealight and it glows from inside. The petal-shaped walls make the ice thicker in some places and thinner in others, so the light glows unevenly, like real frosted glass.

Printing notes

258.3 cm³

Volume

320.3 g

Est. weight

1,916

Triangles

PETG or PP. Fill only the outer ring with water, freeze overnight, then dip in warm water and the ice slides out. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports.

AR view Open in app