Models Showcase: free 3D-printable organizers

By Krypto

Complexity

Medium

Kids & play

0

MAIN PURPOSE: Make bath-time rain to rinse hair gently

A bath toy shaped like a rain cloud. Scoop up bath water and it rains back down through the holes in the floor. Turns hair rinsing into a game for small children.

Printing notes

68.1 cm³

Volume

84.4 g

Est. weight

3,388

Triangles

Print in PETG for the bath. Let it dry upside down. Prints as shown on its outline, no supports.

AR view Open in app

By Krypto

Complexity

Medium (set)

Kids & play

0

Cups-and-balls magic cup

MAIN PURPOSE: Perform the classic cups-and-balls trick

The oldest magic trick there is. A cup with a stacking lip so three of them nest and slide over each other smoothly, a ringed outside to grip and hide the move, and a hollow base deep enough to hide a small ball. Print three and learn the routine.

Printing notes

52.3 cm³

Volume

64.9 g

Est. weight

13,406

Triangles

Print three. Use 20 mm soft balls or rolled paper balls. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports.

AR view Open in app

By Krypto

Complexity

Multi-part assembly

Kids & play

0

Object-permanence ball box

MAIN PURPOSE: Teach a baby that hidden things still exist

A Montessori toy for babies from about eight months. Drop a ball through the hole in the lid; it disappears, then rolls down the sloping floor and reappears out of the open front. It teaches that things still exist when you can't see them.

Printing notes

290.7 cm³

Volume

360.4 g

Est. weight

1,360

Triangles

Use a ball 40 mm or larger so it can't be swallowed. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports. The lid prints as a separate part, top down.

AR view Open in app

By Krypto

Complexity

Advanced

Others Kids & play

0

Alignment-puzzle money box

MAIN PURPOSE: Drop a coin through three turning layers that only let it fall when every hole lines up

A money box that has to be solved before it will take your money. The coin slot in the cap sits over three layers, each with a single coin hole in a different corner. Lift each layer, turn it a quarter, and put it back until all the holes stack up under the slot; get it right and the coin clatters all the way down into the bank. Get it wrong and it stops on a layer, rattling. To empty it, lift everything off.

Printing notes

175.9 cm³

Volume

218.2 g

Est. weight

8,696

Triangles

Print each layer separately. Every layer lifts off and goes back in any of four turns; change the order to reset the puzzle. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports. Stacked parts are fused into one print.

AR view Open in app

By Krypto

Complexity

Medium

Others Kids & play

0

Archaeology dig grid box

MAIN PURPOSE: Excavate buried finds square by square on a string grid, like a real dig

Real archaeologists never just dig: they lay a grid of strings over the site and record every find by its square and layer. Bury small treasures in layers of sand and soil, tie string through the eight holes to make a 3 x 3 grid, and dig one square at a time with a spoon and a paintbrush. Columns A to C and rows 1 to 3 are marked on the sides, so a find goes in the notebook as "B2, layer 1, a bone button". It teaches patience and why the position of a find matters as much as the find.

Printing notes

97.3 cm³

Volume

120.7 g

Est. weight

7,212

Triangles

Thread two strings each way through the holes for a 3 x 3 grid. Bury finds in layers of sand, soil and gravel. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports.

AR view Open in app

By Krypto

Complexity

Multi-part assembly

Others Kids & play

0

Scytale cipher tube

MAIN PURPOSE: Send secret messages that only a tube of exactly the same width can read

The Spartans sent secret orders 2,500 years ago with a scytale. Wind a narrow strip of paper in a spiral round the tube, write your message along it, one letter per turn, then unwind it: the letters scatter into nonsense. Only someone with a tube of exactly the same width can wind it back up and read it. The flat faces of this hexagonal tube keep the lines of writing straight, and the strip lives inside it under the screw cap. Change the width before you print and your pair of tubes becomes your own unbreakable key.

Printing notes

96.4 cm³

Volume

119.6 g

Est. weight

2,844

Triangles

Print two identical tubes, one for each friend. The diameter is the key: change the width to make your own private cipher. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports. The threaded lid and its neck piece print separately; adjust Fit in the Lid tab if it binds.

AR view Open in app

By Krypto

Complexity

Simple

Others Kids & play

0

Vortex air cannon

MAIN PURPOSE: Fire invisible rings of air across a room to knock over paper cups

Tap the stretchy top of this box and a spinning doughnut of air shoots out of the round hole in the side, holds together across the room and knocks over a paper cup or blows out a candle three metres away. It is a vortex ring, the same thing as a smoke ring or a dolphin's bubble ring. Fill the box with mist from a humidifier or incense (with an adult) and you can see the rings wobble through the air.

Printing notes

87.5 cm³

Volume

108.6 g

Est. weight

3,080

Triangles

Stretch a cut balloon, shower cap or plastic bag drum-tight over the open top and tape it all round. Tap the middle sharply. 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

Multi-part assembly

Others Kids & play

0

Vanishing-coin magic box

MAIN PURPOSE: Drop a coin in, shake, open the lid, and it has gone

A magician's prop with a secret in the floor. Show the empty box, drop in a coin, close the lid and give it a shake so everyone hears it rattle. Then, holding it from underneath, tilt it slightly towards you: the coin slides through a hidden slot along the floor edge straight into your palm. Shake again (silence), lift the lid, and the box is empty. Produce the coin from a spectator's ear for the finish.

Printing notes

43.0 cm³

Volume

53.3 g

Est. weight

12,648

Triangles

Print in a dark colour so the slot under the floor edge is invisible. Practise the tilt in front of a mirror. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports. The lid prints as a separate part, top down.

AR view Open in app

By Krypto

Complexity

Multi-part assembly

Others Kids & play

0

Pepper's-ghost haunted box

MAIN PURPOSE: Make a ghost appear and vanish inside a box using a hidden sheet of acrylic

A Victorian stage trick in a box. Look through the window and you see a dark little room. Switch on the tealight in the hidden side chamber and a ghost (any small figure or a cut-out picture you put beside the light) appears floating in the middle of the room, then fades away when you switch it off. A clear sheet standing diagonally across the box reflects the lit side chamber over the room behind it: the same trick, called Pepper's ghost, that makes holograms on stage and ghosts in theme parks.

Printing notes

416.0 cm³

Volume

515.9 g

Est. weight

10,800

Triangles

Stand a 220 x 110 mm sheet of 2-3 mm clear acrylic (or photo-frame glass) diagonally from the front-left to the back-right corner. Use a battery tealight. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports. Large holes in the walls may need supports or good bridging. The lid prints as a separate part, top down. The added base's lid prints separately.

AR view Open in app

By Krypto

Complexity

Advanced

Others Kids & play

0

Cookie moon-phase tray

MAIN PURPOSE: Scrape sandwich cookies into the Moon's phases and lay them round the Earth

Why does the Moon change shape? Twist apart eight sandwich cookies and use a spoon to scrape the cream into each phase: none left for the NEW moon, a thin crescent, half for FIRST quarter, nearly all, all of it for FULL, and back again to LAST quarter. Drop them into the wells in order round EARTH, with the new moon nearest the SUN on the front. The tray shows that the Moon is always half lit by the Sun, and the phase is just how much of that lit half we see from Earth. Then eat the evidence.

Printing notes

180.8 cm³

Volume

224.2 g

Est. weight

14,760

Triangles

Food-safe PETG. The wells take 46 mm sandwich cookies; lift the ring plate off to wash it. Prints as shown on its floor, no supports. Stacked parts are fused into one print.

AR view Open in app