[HN Gopher] Gridfinity: The modular, open-source grid storage sy...
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Gridfinity: The modular, open-source grid storage system
Author : nateb2022
Score : 386 points
Date : 2025-06-30 03:37 UTC (19 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (gridfinity.xyz)
(TXT) w3m dump (gridfinity.xyz)
| stevenpetryk wrote:
| It's such a nice project. But boy do I think it would benefit
| from mass production. People spend a lot of time printing generic
| bins and baseplates that would be better spent just printing
| custom bins.
| f1ay wrote:
| You can use this custom gridfinity generator.
|
| https://gridfinity.perplexinglabs.com/
|
| Ironically printing custom pelican inserts with this right now
| KeplerBoy wrote:
| I guess selling injection molded parts is forbidden under its
| licensing terms, which seems unfortunate.
|
| Let people make some money while everyone is saving money.
| kragen wrote:
| It's not clear what tort would be committed under US law by
| someone who sold injection-molded parts using the Gridfinity
| STLs. Patent infringement? No patent has issued. Copyright
| infringement? Copyright generally only covers expressive
| elements of works such as the sculpture in question, not
| functional elements like the "Sega" string that was at issue
| in _Sega vs. Accolade_. Trademark? Also doesn 't protect
| functional elements.
|
| Basically, it seems like the inventor purports to be
| licensing the kinds of exclusive rights to their invention
| that a patent would grant them, but without actually meeting
| the legal requirements for receiving a patent.
|
| (I don't know of any _other_ jurisdiction that would give
| them a cause of action either, but law is diverse enough, and
| many governments are corrupt enough, that I 'm sure there's
| somewhere in the world they could win a lawsuit.)
|
| Maybe some actual lawyers could chime in on this.
| rented_mule wrote:
| It's been MIT licensed for a couple of years now:
|
| https://x.com/zackfreedman/status/1650629770156326912#m
|
| or for those allergic to X:
|
| https://lightbrd.com/zackfreedman/status/1650629770156326912.
| ..
| poulpy123 wrote:
| I don't know if it's the case of gridfinity but
|
| > Let people make some money
|
| Why would people who did nothing to invent and develop the
| system would get the money and not the creators ?
| Dilettante_ wrote:
| For providing a useful intermediary service?
| giarc wrote:
| Generic drug manufacturers did nothing to invent tylenol
| but they sure make a ton of money making billions of pills
| each year.
| nancyminusone wrote:
| Moldmaking is hardly "did nothing".
| Gigachad wrote:
| Time has never really been an issue imo. For the average person
| your printer sits unused 99% of the time if it takes you half a
| day to print a baseplate and some bins, who cares. It's still
| faster and cheaper than shipping.
| paradox460 wrote:
| Commercializing doesn't really make sense. So I need to get a
| small 1x1x3 container to store washers or whatever. With my 3D
| printer, I'll have that container in under an hour. Even if I
| bought it with the fastest shipping Amazon has available,
| assuming it was from a local Warehouse, the earliest I could
| get it would be half a day away. Having a local store that
| sells them would be marginally faster, but then I have to go to
| the store, pick it up and come home. The hour I spend waiting
| for the printer isn't an hour. I'm I'm completely blocked from
| doing anything else. It's just an hour in which my printers
| busy.
| hobofan wrote:
| The example you bring up is for a single one-off extension.
| Yeah, for that case it doesn't make a lot of sense.
|
| However, for initial setup of the system (e.g. filling up
| multiple drawers with baseplates and basic bins, as you will
| see in many videos online), it would definitely jump start
| the process a lot, where you'll otherwise spend weeks
| printing everything. Additionally, if you also go for the
| fancier baseplates/bins that include the magnets you'll also
| spend quite a bit of time on assembly and will require
| external hardware anyways.
|
| I personally didn't think it was a big deal as for me
| adopting the system incrementally over time worked quite
| well, but I think there definitely is a niche of people (and
| possibly businesses) that would like to adopt Gridfinity for
| its other benefits and appreciate faster initial setup time.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I think they're a good intro to 3D printing.
|
| You wouldn't download "Hello world"?
| inanutshellus wrote:
| I don't understand the sibling posts that're arguing with you.
|
| Consumer-grade containers would be cheaper than 3d printing if
| buying a set, it'd get folk up-and-running without fuss, and
| when they wanted to customize it they could do so with the help
| of any of their 3d printing fanatic buddies.
|
| So yeah. I agree with @stephenpetryk. Storage solution
| companies should start marking their bins as Gridfinity-
| compatible (which is a protected use of copyright regardless of
| whether "Gridfinity" is copyrighted).
| LanceH wrote:
| The place to start would be enough basic bins and the grid
| itself for the Alex drawers from Ikea.
|
| The cool things about gridfinity is not just the custom
| pieces, but also the exact fit that can be achieved. Since
| every drawer seems to be a slightly different size, exact
| fits with basic bins would never quite be achieved without
| targeting a specific drawer.
|
| Also, I've turned down the fill and structural strength a lot
| without issues for most things. How strong does a bin for
| cotton swabs need to be?
| Aurornis wrote:
| > People spend a lot of time printing generic bins and
| baseplates that would be better spent just printing custom bins
|
| 3D printing with a modern printer is set and forget. You send
| the print file to the printer and you go get it a couple hours
| later.
|
| Still faster than waiting for a package from Amazon and lower
| resource usage than driving to the store.
|
| The customization comes everywhere from picking the bin you
| want to selecting the color filament to match your layout.
| Gridfinity isn't my thing but people who are into it are
| usually customizing something, from the color to the baseplate.
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| Especially for baseplates, since I have some drawers that are
| larger than my print area. It'd be awesome to just buy an
| injection molded 8x7 on Amazon or whatever for $5 instead of
| fiddling with glue and interlocking puzzle pieces.
| defrost wrote:
| Warning (or recommendation): Impossibly ambitious
| cleanup campaigns are like catnip to ADHD havers
| lvturner wrote:
| _sighs in stalled project and half organised gridfinity
| cupboard_
|
| Though the plus side to this is that it can be done somewhat
| inrementally
| nancyminusone wrote:
| I must have a very indifferent attitude towards catnip then.
|
| I've also sought treatment for OCD. It doesn't give me any kind
| of "organizing superpower", it just makes we want to wash my
| hands after touching things.
| jot wrote:
| There's a filament saving variant where you can use toilet rolls
| or other waste cardboard for the walls:
| https://www.printables.com/model/880256-cardboard-gridfinity...
| throwaway0665 wrote:
| Wow this is amazing.
| ffsm8 wrote:
| Why do people want to reuse toilet paper rolls? Paper is not
| a hygienic material, and these are used in a place that's
| rife with bacteria...
| VBprogrammer wrote:
| If you are worried about this you might want to consider
| whether you have a healthy degree of concern about hygiene
| and bacteria. It could be worth speaking with a therapist.
| Gigachad wrote:
| If the bacteria on toilet rolls was an actual problem,
| toothbrushes would be a much bigger issue than storage
| tubs.
| Nullabillity wrote:
| Usually you don't use your toothbrush while fondling your
| genitals...
| IlikeKitties wrote:
| You don't know what you are missing but to each their own
| i guess.
| speedbird wrote:
| Got a proper chuckle, TU
| yapyap wrote:
| ... do you.. use a toilet paper roll for that?
| malfist wrote:
| Modified wooden toilet roller? Wow. Just wow.
|
| I think maybe I've been on fark too long.
| https://m.fark.com/comments/6611712/Woman-discovers-
| boyfrien...
| dylan604 wrote:
| I was shocked that this might have been a recent thread
| on fark, but the time stamps reassured that fark is part
| of the past still
| malfist wrote:
| It's still alive and well, unless you could demographics
| aging like South Korea
| Nullabillity wrote:
| ..how else would you possibly wipe them?
| mapt wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_plume
| eloisant wrote:
| There are way more bacteria in your mouth than on your
| genitals
| dotancohen wrote:
| I feel like invoking the zeroth law of thermodynamics
| here.
| gavmor wrote:
| I am not personally turned off by the hygiene of toilet
| paper rolls, but I think any rational adult's _Overton
| Window_ should accommodate those who are. Your
| condescension is grossly unwarranted.
|
| You don't have to be Adrian Monk to recognize that
| toilets are unsanitary.
| ffsm8 wrote:
| Eh, it got a chuckle and eye roll outta me so I didn't
| mind.
|
| And fwiw, I don't really _care_ either wherever people
| use them for whatever they want, I am just still confused
| why people would _want_ to use paper (sourced from
| leftover toilet utensils), which is notorious for being
| basically un-cleanable... as food storage, but to each
| their own.
|
| I'm surprised how many people hate me for such (imo)
| mellow statement though
| sarchertech wrote:
| I definitely wouldn't want to he any kind of un-cleanable
| surface as long term food storage.
|
| But I don't think most people are using gridfinity as
| food storage.
| ffsm8 wrote:
| I just contextualized it around food storage too, as
| jot's link has pictures of such (the comment that started
| this thread).
|
| But the article/video we're commenting on doesn't do so,
| so that's fair I guess?
| function_seven wrote:
| This isn't a food storage thing, but I think I see where
| you got that idea from the photos in the link. He's
| showing the types of paperboard that work with his
| system. Old cereal boxes, coffee filter boxes, etc.
| Spunkie wrote:
| > notorious for being basically un-cleanable
|
| I don't really think anyone other than OCD/germaphobes
| thinks about toilet paper rolls in that way and it's
| certainly not "notorious". I'm pretty sure the general
| sentiment is that it's a perfectly benign material, often
| given to kids to play and craft with.
|
| The same thing happened with that episode of mythbusters
| about the toilet ploom from flushing. A bunch of
| OCD/germaphobes lost their minds and have not stopped
| thinking about it since. Meanwhile the rest of society
| gave a collective shrug and couldn't even be bothered to
| move their toothbrush brush to another room or close the
| toilet lid while flushing.
| VBprogrammer wrote:
| I'm not sure where you got condescension from - I was
| going for genuine concern. Being irrationality concerned
| about hygiene is a warning sign for conditions like
| obsessive compulsive disorder.
| bjackman wrote:
| IIUC this is also true of most 3D-print materials. You
| should not be using Gridfinity to store food! This is also
| why you usually shouldn't 3D print a dildo.
|
| This would be true even if the materials were food safe to
| be honest, I don't see how you can keep something like this
| clean.
|
| It's for storing stuff like capacitors and screws and
| electrical tape.
| lrvick wrote:
| But, importantly, you can 3D print a dildo mold.
| bobsmooth wrote:
| The layer lines will show up in the silicone.
| cassianoleal wrote:
| That's called ribbing and it's a feature.
| peterpost2 wrote:
| You could lightly sand it before using it as mold, would
| lessen that issue.
| lrvick wrote:
| Or a little bit of alcohol vapor smoothing if you print
| the mold with ASA
| a_bored_husky wrote:
| Beeswax
|
| https://www.billieruben.info/post/3d-printing-sex-toys-a-
| qui...
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28819927
| i5heu wrote:
| context: 3D-print material like PLA is food safe, but due
| to the many edges and lines between the print layers it
| is basically impossible to clean to a food safe degree.
| idiotsecant wrote:
| You can make it reasonably food safe with an acetone mist
| bath, though. It melts all the irregularities into a
| smooth surface.
| phoronixrly wrote:
| While theoretically you can get certified food-safe blend
| of PLA, the rest of the extrusion path must also be food-
| safe... I personally am not fond of eating hot degraded
| PTFE... Or the trace remains of charred ASA/ABS I printed
| last week through the same nozzle... Or in fact any of
| the various coatings of the heated bed or leftover trace
| amounts of previous prints...
|
| It's just a black hole that I choose not to get into by
| not printing stuff that's expected to be in contact with
| food.
| rtkwe wrote:
| The main solution I've heard is to just encapsulate the
| whole thing in foodsafe epoxy. Then it doesn't matter as
| much what the inner material in so long as you monitor
| for damage.
| progman32 wrote:
| There's also the issue of lead in the brass nozzle, so
| you'd probably want to switch to a safer material there.
| SR2Z wrote:
| > I personally am not fond of eating hot degraded PTFE
|
| If this is a problem, you should buy a new printer that
| actually keeps the filament conduits away from the
| hotend. This is a health hazard regardless of food safety
| - decomposed PTFE is nasty stuff to breathe in.
|
| > Or the trace remains of charred ASA/ABS I printed last
| week through the same nozzle...
|
| Fair enough, but I would also say that you should be
| purging old filament anyways before starting a new one.
| My slicer does this by default.
|
| > Or in fact any of the various coatings of the heated
| bed or leftover trace amounts of previous prints...
|
| These days, heated beds are covered in PEI. That's food-
| safe too.
|
| I think your take is a little panicky and not supported
| by the evidence. It is perfectly fine to print single-use
| food stuff out of PLA, especially if you just have a roll
| or two of the pure (undyed) stuff around. You're much
| more likely to get sick from the food itself than the
| plastic it touched for a little while, and PLA is
| relatively biodegradable compared to most other plastic
| foodware.
| phoronixrly wrote:
| > If this is a problem, you should buy a new printer that
| actually keeps the filament conduits away from the hotend
|
| The filament is still in contact with the PTFE tube, the
| PTFE tube is also hand-cut by me and in motion with the
| head so it undergoes wear. Even when you get an all-metal
| hotend there are ways of contamination by PTFE passing
| through the hot-end and degrading into harmful chemicals.
|
| > purging old filament anyways before starting a new one.
| My slicer does this by default.
|
| I do purge and cold-pull. While this removes the bulk of
| the old filament it does not remove all trace amounts of
| it.
|
| > These days, heated beds are covered in PEI. That's
| food-safe too.
|
| It is food-safe only if it was produced in a food-safe
| manner and was kept food safe afterwards, including no
| contact with pollutants.
|
| Since you mention evidence, I have no way of proving that
| anything I produce is food-safe. Literally not anything
| in my extrusion path is certified food-safe, let alone I
| have equipment to test.
|
| The fact of the matter is that glass, ceramic, and
| stainless steel has replaced any vessels that are in
| contact with food at home, and I don't intend to look
| back on that, and I am in fact looking to replace
| anything in regular contact with human skin with non-
| synthetic/non-plastic alternatives -- this includes
| clothes, bed sheets and others.
|
| While there is the hacking mindset, people also need to
| be responsible, and my red lines on that is making stuff
| with a safety aspect to it. Food safety is safety as much
| as fire and electrical safety in my book.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| Also lead from brass nozzles. I think the risks are
| overblown, but recommending anything that is not
| recognized as food-safe for use with food is a liability,
| better safe than sorry, as they say.
|
| There are food safe coatings though, these deal with the
| problem by making your 3D print not in contact with food.
| dekhn wrote:
| That's ABS- PLA is not really soluble in acetone. It's
| soluble in limonene.
| naasking wrote:
| I think the hygiene issue is somewhat exaggerated. Early
| printing often didn't prioritize properly dried filament
| so the output often bubbled and had many pockmarks and
| imperfections where bacteria could grow. If you look at
| modern prints they are quite smooth and consistent.
|
| Even so, if you want to be perfectly safe then apply a
| coat of polyurethane varnish and let it fully cure. That
| will seal any holes or voids where bacteria might grow,
| insulated from cleaning solutions.
| seltzered_ wrote:
| Im not sure how food safe it is yet, but there is PHA
| which promises more compostability into the soil.
|
| https://reddit.com/r/3dprinting_pha is a start.
| diggan wrote:
| > Why do people want to reuse toilet paper rolls?
|
| Because some of us have like 200 cables, and toilet paper
| rolls is a cheap but effective way of getting some control
| over these :) And besides, I'm sure that my fingers and
| feet are more dirty when I touch/move any of the cables,
| than the toilet paper rolls that spent a couple of days in
| a bathroom.
| cassianoleal wrote:
| You go through a roll in a couple days?
| nython wrote:
| Store your food in PLA containers and you can too
| diggan wrote:
| I'm not sure if you're trying to say that's a lot or
| little? But yeah, each roll might survive 3-4 days at
| most I'd guess, but honestly can't say I've ever
| measured. We're two people (me and my wife) in the
| household fwiw.
| Faaak wrote:
| It las us (household of two also) at least a week. I've
| found out in the past that I used way too much out of
| habit. Also for some reason triple ply needs less paper
| cassianoleal wrote:
| Feels like a lot. Even 3-4 days does. I'm not judging
| though!
|
| In my household with 3 adults, we go through maybe a roll
| every 2 weeks or so. It's almost exclusively used for
| number 2 business though, so maybe that accounts for some
| of that difference.
|
| Or, we just use very different types of paper, and yours
| require more of it for the same effect. :)
| therealpygon wrote:
| You mean like a phone, that you later stick up to your
| face? I'm sure someone will chime in with how they "never
| use their phone in the bathroom", which no one will
| believe.
| allknowingfrog wrote:
| I worry about the digestive health of people who use
| phones in the bathroom. I go in there for a specific job,
| which I focus on until completion. I never get bored
| enough to start looking for other things to do.
| bluGill wrote:
| Reduce reuse recycle. They are looking for a step two-
| hopefully they already have bidet, but paper is still
| useful for drying after.
| linsomniac wrote:
| Maybe paper towel rolls then?
| highcountess wrote:
| That is a great improvement, but best would be a combination of
| both designs, the former adding the "finder shelf that can also
| serve for labeling, and the slopped bottom that allows scooping
| out individual pieces.
|
| Another improvement may be to make the top and bottom pieces
| stackable along with the snapping grid system compatibility.
| zefhous wrote:
| Not gridfinity compatible, but I have a set of corner pieces
| that uses a similar concept. The majority of the material can
| be scrap acrylic, mdf, cardboard, etc. and you just print the
| corner pieces. Lids and stuff too.
|
| https://www.printables.com/model/57813-boxkit-parts-for-maki...
|
| 3d printing is great, but a lot of wasted plastic if you print
| large organizers and stuff like that.
| Gigachad wrote:
| I've been trying this out. The biggest problem I'm experiencing
| is that your draws won't be a perfect multiple of the grid size.
| Which means you are always going to be left with gaps on the side
| which are wasted space which could be up to 40mm.
|
| There is kind of a solution to this where you can use non
| standard grid sizes to perfectly fit your draws, and there are
| generators which will create the baseplates and bins for you. But
| you lose the ability to use other people's models.
|
| Feel like it would have been better if they had picked a smaller
| grid size so the average wasted space would be smaller.
| rcarmo wrote:
| What I do is print custom bins to store long things on the side
| of the grid. Making it smaller or bigger would not have fixed
| anything.
| Gigachad wrote:
| Making the grid size smaller makes the wasted space less. In
| the worst case scenario, your draw is 1mm too short for the
| last row, so the other 40mm becomes wasted. If the grid was
| half the size for example, the worst case scenario is 20mm
| wasted.
| MarkCole wrote:
| There is also the option to do half bins / half grid pattern at
| the edge. So you have the normal 42x42 grid pattern, then on
| one edge there are 21x42 sized boxes. There are a number of
| designs that support the half grid pattern. This would reduce
| your maximum lost space down to 20mm, and you would still have
| compatibility with the gridfinity system.
| Gigachad wrote:
| I'll have to give this a shot. I can always put the generic
| bins I can generate as half size on the edge and put the
| downloaded ones in the standard grid.
| 91bananas wrote:
| Or print a custom spacer to fill any gaps you have on the
| edges that also has holes or slots to hold even more random
| crap.
| thebruce87m wrote:
| What does "draw" mean in this context?
| nimos wrote:
| I assume it is drawers.
| WillAdams wrote:
| I am actually beginning work on a fork which uses 21mm (half
| normal size) as the basis grid) --- a lot of my work (and
| attendant hardware) is smaller scale, so hoping that will work
| out well.
| LanceH wrote:
| There is a fusion 360 plugin where you can customize all this.
| You won't be able to download everything out there for the
| default grid size, but you can make your own.
| kalev wrote:
| Took me a while before i understood it was to store physical
| items. For a second I was thinking some battery solution-like
| grid storage system. A few photos on the homepage would help a
| lot and make it much more clear for noobs like me.
| delecti wrote:
| When I visit that page, the thumbnail of the embedded youtube
| video displays automatically and shows a gridfinity setup with
| a wide variety of tools in it. Presumably he's presuming that
| people can see that.
| hwillis wrote:
| Same, hah. The similarity between gridwall and powerwall in
| another comment also snagged me. "Perfboard" has also gotten me
| before- both are perforated board, but one is used for quick
| circuit boards and the other (more commonly called pegboard) is
| a wall-mounted modular hook system for storage.
| lotyrin wrote:
| Based on the title alone I was thinking it was a solution for
| storing grids... not that I had any idea what kind of grid one
| might need to store.
| grigri907 wrote:
| Learn from my mistake: Not at all about the electrical grid and
| energy storage strategies.
|
| Great in its own right though
| morjom wrote:
| Open-source Honeycomb storage wall by RostaP:
| https://www.printables.com/model/152592-honeycomb-storage-wa...
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/honeycombwall/
|
| Although they aren't open-source as Gridfinity or HSW:
|
| Cargo modular storage system by Play Conveyor:
| https://thangs.com/designer/Play%20Conveyor/3d-model/Cargo%2...
|
| Multiboard, by Multiboard: https://www.multiboard.io/
| cjonas wrote:
| Why mention multiboard and not honeycomb storage wall (HSW)?
| It's open source and arguably a better ecosystem.
| morjom wrote:
| I didn't come across it is why. I'll add it.
| lrvick wrote:
| Also the proprietary license on multiboard is absolutely
| insane. Not only is it closed source, even the printed
| objects have strings attached. If you ever use anything you
| print from the multiboard library in a for-profit setting you
| are obligated to pay a monthly license fee.
|
| HSW 100%
| cge wrote:
| >Also the proprietary license on multiboard is absolutely
| insane.
|
| Licensing in the 3D printing community tends to be a mess,
| with licenses that are often absurd, and selectively and
| sometimes dramatically enforced and unenforced. Multiboard
| is one of the most absurd I've seen, and is so utterly
| toxic I feel like touching anything involved with it would
| be risky: I'd really encourage people to read it [1] (and
| not the misleading summary they give). I suppose by even
| writing this I'm making myself ineligible for the license,
| as the license would not allow me to act in any way
| contrary to the interests of the company behind Multiboard,
| or even encourage any third part to act contrary to those
| interests. If the terms aren't absurd enough, there's a
| clause for the company to terminate the already limited
| ability to make and use derivative works if they feel you
| are taking advantage of the license terms.
|
| Yet at the same time, go to any 3D printing model website,
| and you'll see numerous obvious copyright and trademark
| violations of Multiboard, often under completely
| incompatible licenses. Not only are these not removed (I
| have reported them before), but the owners of Multiboard
| will even officially comment on the sites praising the
| designs.
|
| It's bizarre, but despite things at times going
| dramatically wrong, like with Benchy's license suddenly
| being enforced after many years of encouraging violations,
| people in the community largely seem to ignore the problem.
|
| [1]: https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1C0-Iyxydqk_d2I
| 3o_5ua...
| MezzoDelCammin wrote:
| thanks for this one. I've just printed my first two
| stacks of Multiboard for the office after only reading
| the license summary.
|
| The way they play with "Designed Works" and "commercial
| use" is really pretty weird. I kinda understand the aim -
| it's just one guy who's probably trying to make a startup
| out of this and is kinda hedging his bases against
| someone coming up with an injection moulded copy on
| Aliexpress. But the way "commercial use" is left vague is
| pretty sketchy. Is e.g. "background of an office in a
| youtube video" considered "commercial use"?
|
| That being said, I guess I'll still finish at least one
| wall with it. I've used a few pegboards over the years
| and in my experience, these things don't die on
| licensing. They die on the fact that the manufacturer
| stops making them / switches to a different size / type.
| Here I can at least save the STLs and reprint the stuff
| as needed.
| lrvick wrote:
| > Here I can at least save the STLs and reprint the stuff
| as needed.
|
| Until the license is revoked, changed, or you ever do
| some for profit work from the space where the multiboard
| exists. Multiboard legally owns the objects you printed
| on your printer with filament you paid for, so you will
| still be a pirate!
|
| Multiboard is supposedly HSW compatible though so
| consider only printing HSW parts so you are not locked
| into their doomed ecosystem.
| dangus wrote:
| One might choose multiboard if they want better weight
| bearing characteristics. I went through this whole evaluation
| a few months ago and that's how I ended up with Multiboard
| over the alternatives.
|
| I think the license is a negative but I also don't think it's
| going to impact end users in any way that would make me worry
| about using it.
|
| It's not like I'm dedicating myself to a software ecosystem
| or something complex like that. If the license somehow
| becomes a problem, at the end of the day it's just a pegboard
| that I printed for under $20 worth of material. I can just
| make a new one.
| pjc50 wrote:
| OK, a hex grid wall is really appealing. Now I just need to
| find a local printer ..
| lrvick wrote:
| Trust me once you start printing this you are going to want
| it all over your home and want new panels on demand for any
| otherwise useless wall space. 3D printers are cheap!
| baq wrote:
| They're also relatively big and ideally the thing they're
| standing on is attached to the wall or has a 40kg damper
| (i.e. a concrete pavement block or something similar).
| lrvick wrote:
| Getting one with an enclosure like a Prusa Core One does
| wonders for noise reduction. Can even throw it under a
| desk.
|
| I had one in my office for years and no one could hear it
| on the other side of video calls.
| baq wrote:
| I've got a bambu A1 and noise is not a problem at all, I
| had to put that concrete block underneath it or it'd
| destroy the cheap coffee table it was standing on due to
| vibrations :)
| lrvick wrote:
| Ah yeah that tracks. My enclosed Prusa MK4 is on a big
| stud-mounted shelf and my huge enclosed Prusa XL is on
| top of a heavy server rack with locked castors on a
| concrete floor. Vibration is not noticeable in either
| case.
| a_wild_dandan wrote:
| Consumer printers work well (or even better) without any
| dampers, and they come in all (e.g. fishbowl) sizes.
| poulpy123 wrote:
| for the wall there is now also opengrid
| https://www.printables.com/model/1214361-opengrid-walldesk-m...
| hobofan wrote:
| For anyone looking to get into those storage systems I can also
| highly recommend "Hands on Katie"'s Youtube channel:
| https://www.youtube.com/@handsonkatie - There are a few videos
| that go into different storage systems and how to combine them
| to cover different storage needs and vertical/horizontal
| surfaces.
|
| Her Discord is also quite active with people interested in the
| space, and Underware (under the desk cable management system),
| Neogrid and Deskware are all storage systems that have came out
| of her community.
| speedbird wrote:
| She's quite a card
| yapyap wrote:
| a card?
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| It's kinda like a wag, although the term isn't used as
| often nowadays
| mcrittenden wrote:
| A wag?
| gertrunde wrote:
| Joker, Clown, etc
|
| https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/wag
| ssimpson wrote:
| I used the underwear+multiboard for my under desk
| organization and it's excellent.
| hobofan wrote:
| For walls there is also the GOEWS (Greatly Over Engineered Wall
| System) - https://goews.xyz
|
| However personally, I've also been a fan of IKEA Skadis boards,
| as it's quite easy to get up and running in terms of a
| baseplate + there are already a lot of models for it out there.
| Bystroushaak wrote:
| Can recommend Honeycomb Storage Wall. Printed it two weeks ago,
| so far I am super happy with it. I've tried multiboard
| previously, but only a few segments. It was harder to print, I
| had it for a year and never really got into accessories, it
| felt too limiting.
| cchance wrote:
| Thanks for posting these, the play conveyor ones are so clean
| and well designed , i've been watching them on youtube from
| time to time, havent decided to go with gridfinity or play
| conveyor yet tho
| SOLAR_FIELDS wrote:
| An old colleague of mine went through the process of doing
| gridfinity. One of his main struggles was getting boxes that fit
| his power tools perfectly. He was looking for a way to easily get
| a shape of the tool into CAD. What's the most straightforward and
| effective way to get a CAD representation of a solid these days?
| Of course there are expensive solutions but is there anything
| reasonably achievable in the DIY space?
| 127 wrote:
| I do the following:
|
| 1. Draw the outline of the tool in question on A4 paper
|
| 2. Scan it
|
| 3. Trace it on Blender, extrude, boolean
|
| 4. Print
|
| Of course, only works for small enough tools. Maybe use more A4
| sheets?
| junon wrote:
| Photogrammetry is one. Generally results in messy geometry
| though and tolerances get finicky.
|
| The CAD plugin in Blender is my favorite though. Need a caliper
| to get measurements and then I can build out my
| hooks/clamps/whatever. FreeCAD for when I just need sketches as
| I find the solid part workflow utterly confusing, whereas I'm
| very well versed in Blender.
| diggan wrote:
| > Photogrammetry is one. Generally results in messy geometry
| though and tolerances get finicky.
|
| The trick is a hybrid approach, use photogrammetry to get a
| draft model into whatever environment you use (like Blender
| or whatever), then use that for creating the high-quality
| cutout manually, which will be very easy with a in-place 3D
| draft model right in the scene.
| pavelrub wrote:
| The common approach is to take a photo of an object from above
| together with a ruler or something of a known size for scale,
| then import that directly into the CAD software, scale
| according to the scaling object, and create a cutout along the
| object's outline. No need for calipers, 3d scans, or other
| complex measurement procedures. There are a lot of videos and
| guides on how to do that.
| alphalima wrote:
| This is how to do it.I also round the edges of the cutout.
|
| Also, there is an extension for freecad to make non
| rectangular (e.g. "p") shaped bins.
|
| Most satisfying, least productive things I've done this year!
| stavros wrote:
| https://outline.georgs.lv
| cgjohn wrote:
| I'm sure your colleague has done this already, but for anyone
| considering creating their own models, I would highly recommend
| checking whether somebody else already went through that
| process for you. A lot of things have been fitted into
| gridfinity. And even if not for gridfinity specifically, you
| can fairly easily adapt other existing models to a gridfinity
| based box.
|
| There are 3d model search engines where I recommend just
| entering [item name] + gridfinity to find pre existing models.
| There is: yeggi.com and thangs.com (be aware that the latter
| recently changed to only display models from its own domain by
| default).
| wizardforhire wrote:
| Well if you want to get dirty and not deal with design, build a
| vacuum former. Shop vac, perf board, 2x4 or 1x2 frame and
| whatever rigid for a backer. Build the frames out of screen
| door frame pieces, and binder clips to close them. Polystyrene
| sheets are cheap af $.05 or less at any plastic supplier. Never
| been to a plastic supplier? I guarantee theres one relatively
| near by in whatever is your closest major city. Use your oven
| to heat the plastic. Turn on the vac, pull out the plastic when
| it droops, slam down quick... perfect part. Lots of videos on
| youtube. Adam savage does a few on the process. Lots of nuance
| to the process to get really good pieces but for cheap, quick
| and good its hard to beat. Oh yeah the whole stormtrooper
| cosplay scene has done a lot of work on the setup, most
| definitely lots of improvements that I'm glossing over but like
| all rabbit holes its pretty deep.
|
| Adam Savage's guide to vacuum forming
| https://youtube.com/watch?v=lTy8tsZzT_Q&pp=ygUaYWRhbSBzYXZhZ...
|
| First page I could find for the diy stormtrooper costume
| process
| https://www.studiocreations.com/howto/stormtrooper/index.htm...
| upstandingdude wrote:
| Imho thats overoptimizing. To me the next larger square box is
| the best most flexible solution. I get the allure of perfect
| fit places for everything but to me its not worth the
| continuous effort. (I got several gridfinity drawers)
| lrvick wrote:
| I just pull out calipers, take some quick measurements, then
| put them into OpenSCAD, export, and hit print.
|
| Between Honeycomb Storage Wall and Gridfinity almost every tool
| I own has a home.
| WillAdams wrote:
| While it wasn't 3D printed, that is how I did things when I
| first got my first CNC machine:
|
| https://www.pinterest.com/pin/shapeoko--379709812305098767/
| cluckindan wrote:
| You could get a table mat with a measuring grid and take
| photographs of the object from different sides; three or more
| depending on how much asymmetric features the object has. Go as
| far away from the object as possible and use maximum zoom to
| get as close to isometric perspective as possible. If it's not
| a very thick object, this method is millimeter accurate. With
| larger objects, the perspective will lead to slightly larger
| measurements at the object extremities: edges closest to the
| camera will be enlarged.
|
| Then, in your CAD program, set up the photos as backgrounds for
| different perspective views.
|
| Or, obviously, get a 3D scanner and live with the point cloud
| mesh approximations, it's probably less of a hassle.
|
| Or... just get a good set of calipers and a radius measuring
| tool.
| baq wrote:
| I scanned a small tool, a drill is probably more difficult
| WillAdams wrote:
| If you just need an outline, this nascent AI site tries to
| address that need:
|
| https://www.tooltrace.ai/
|
| (and for the Europeans/Rest of the World, there's an A4
| configuration option)
| wingspar wrote:
| I don't recall the specifics at the moment but YouTuber Uncle
| Jessy showed how to take a custom box in his gridfinity video.
|
| https://youtu.be/TvIvoY013xQ
| slau wrote:
| Zach Freedman, the creator of the original Gridfinity, is also an
| amazing writer and wordsmith. His videos are full of amazing
| tongue twisters, alliterations and incredible puns.
|
| I wish he'd write books.
|
| Highly recommended: https://m.youtube.com/@ZackFreedman
| hanklazard wrote:
| Yeah his video was linked on the page and i found him
| incredibly entertaining. Agreed, he's a very clever writer.
| pragma_x wrote:
| > full of amazing tongue twisters
|
| You mean, always amazingly augmented, aspiring to alienate all
| other audible aspirations? Zach is always a treat.
| VBprogrammer wrote:
| It took me a long time to convince myself he wasn't the actor
| from Numb3rs.
| cobbaut wrote:
| Creator yes, but is Gridfinity not based on this video from
| Alexandre Chapel? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHFK5sY8ToE
| jerf wrote:
| Acknowledged on the linked website directly under "Origins of
| Gridfinity".
| theideaofcoffee wrote:
| Yes, he explicitly calls it out:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra_9zU-mnl8&t=384s
| d--b wrote:
| It is by no means a perfect solution, but its simplicity and its
| mass adoption make it by far the best one out there.
|
| Kudos to all gridfinity makers out there.
| f1ay wrote:
| This is for generating custom bin / baseplate sizes in multiple
| "formats", and solves a lot of the issues I see brought up on
| this thread.
|
| https://gridfinity.perplexinglabs.com/
|
| Outside of gridfinity it can be used to generate odd-sized grids
| via the GRIPS option, make HSW honeycomb walls, and supports
| multiboard, and a few others.
| tetha wrote:
| Maybe I'm a bit of a downer there, but I looked at the overall
| effort and time investment of making Gridfinity and rather got
| myself a cutting board and glue to recycle old cardboard.
|
| Don't get me wrong, Gridfinity looks amazing. But, cutting a few
| cardboard base plates from old shipping boxes into place and
| putting together little stands for a metronome, tuner and a few
| other small things, as well as a bunch of boxes for plecs and
| other small stuff took like half an hour to an hour.
|
| And I could reuse some trash shipping boxes I had around here.
| devrandoom wrote:
| You'd be surprised how many ways there are to make storage
| containers. Gridfinity is one of them.
| bityard wrote:
| Along these lines, foam core board is a super common and
| effective material for making drawer organizers and little
| boxes. It's very cheap and holds together surprisingly well
| with hot glue or super glue. Adam Savage is a huge fan of it
| and he's tried everything.
| Sinthrill wrote:
| Adam Savage has done everything, but he's still a little bit
| behind on practical 3D printing. I think as of 2~ years ago
| he said he still wasn't 'up' on his CAD programs.
|
| He did get a new Nylon FDM machine and a few other things,
| but he isn't so much a software design person. Mr. Savage has
| a huge bias towards using their hands to solve their problems
| and I wouldn't take his work style as a referendum on the
| utility of these other tools.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWXcnVTY3pk
|
| Foam Core is still cool tho
| freetime2 wrote:
| I needed to organize a bunch of tools and other miscellaneous
| items in a closet. I tried printing a few Gridfinity items, but
| quickly realized that it wasn't worth the time, effort and
| filament + electricity costs. I ended up going to the dollar
| store and buying a bunch of plastic containers and some labels,
| and managed to get everything organized in an hour and for
| under $10.
|
| I think Gridfinity is more geared toward people looking for a
| hobby than a practical storage solution. Which it totally fine
| - people are definitely creating some cool stuff with
| Gridfinity - but probably good to decide up front which group
| you fall into.
| PeterStuer wrote:
| Had to watch the first 60 seconds of a linked video to know what
| this even was. It's printable tool storage, tools as in
| screwdrivers etc.
|
| I guess they assume anyone hitting the site already knows this.
|
| When I read 'grid' and 'storage' on HN, I think of other stuff.
| bravesoul2 wrote:
| It's open source! Basically it's just the number 42 open sourced
| :). That makes it the MCP of things ha ha.
| jmartin2683 wrote:
| Zach is awesome
| WillAdams wrote:
| Resisted this for a long while, instead using a series of plastic
| organizers in various sizes, eventually settling on the
| Storehouse 10 Tray Organizer Utility Box from Harbor Freight
| which organizer size matches that used for selling a fair range
| of hardware on Amazon --- then, when I dropped one, breaking the
| dividers/separators in the box and went to look for a replacement
| discovered it was out of stock locally and was being
| discontinued.
|
| On that basis, a DIY/roll-your-own solution became far more
| attractive.
|
| - no waiting on shipping
|
| - no worry about whether or no there is an SKU which meets my
| needs (I had to modify the 10-tray compartments into 5-tray front
| --back organizers for endmills)
|
| The thing which finally pushed me over was the development of a
| matching Systainer system:
|
| https://old.reddit.com/r/gridfinity/comments/1lnkt93/wip_upd...
|
| which hopefully will be ready by the time my order of a
| new/larger 3D printer than my current (tiny) Ordbot Quantum
| arrives.
| joshmarinacci wrote:
| This. Every commercial system I've used changes or is
| discontinued. I now take my storage into my own hands, even if
| it takes longer.
| rsync wrote:
| I standardized on Sortimo t-boxx for our workshops:
|
| https://www.mysortimo.us/en_US/Storage-
| Bins-%26-Boxes/T-BOXX...
|
| ... and although the insert _colors_ changed, the
| architecture and sizing has been constant for more than 15
| years ...
| nancyminusone wrote:
| I've always viewed these projects with a bit of suspicion - like
| I have trouble believing that anyone who does this actually does
| more with their tools than organize them and put them away. Which
| is fine if that's what you like, but not why I personally own
| tools. Shop time is limited enough as it is.
|
| Also seems like a great way to add +50% plastic volume to
| everything you own. Incidentally, I've found the cardboard boxes
| that 3D printer filament comes in to be an excellent basis for
| general storage.
| 7thpower wrote:
| Everything has a place, and when it's in its place, I can find
| it quickly and get to work. These systems help me with that.
| toolis wrote:
| to each their own. if you do 1 small project per year, it might
| make sense to dig for 30 minutes in home depot bucket to find
| out you don't actually have the part you thought you have.
| doing that more frequently starts to become major waste of
| time. my tools don't live in gridfinity boxes, shallow tool
| drawers are good enough, but metric bolts, nuts and other stuff
| is neatly organised.
| LanceH wrote:
| I've printed a ton of little compartments for all manner of
| things for crafts. I'll print the grid to lay flat in a drawer,
| and then print various size boxes which socket into that grid.
| I'll also print a grid to lay on the table, so there is never a
| need to pull parts from the drawers, just pull the whole box
| and it sockets onto the table with it's own dedicated space and
| no slippage.
|
| There is also a plugin for Fusion 360 which allows customizing
| a lot of items that can go into the grid.
|
| I do work on my shop, but only so far as it furthers my
| hobbies.
|
| As far as gridfinity goes, it's really nice to have the right
| size and amount of storage for everything. Imagine those
| inserts people buy for cutlery for a drawer in the kitchen.
| There is always a gap on the side for something to fall into.
| There is only a slot for all knives. No place at all for corn
| on the cob holders.
|
| Now imagine this same problem for building models where a
| person may have 200+ different items in different amounts.
| Previously people used things like tackle boxes from fishing,
| or one of those plastic cases for holding screws. But they
| never quite line up.
|
| Also, 3d printing is very much an asynchronous kind of thing.
| You work on your shop by pushing a button and get results an
| hour later. It's not woodworking where you spend 80 hours
| building your bench, then the next 500 hours building all the
| parts for it.
| WillAdams wrote:
| One video which discusses usage for tools:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYA0xLryF-g
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| YMMV but when my work area changed from "big pile of junk" to
| "semi-organized", it removed a lot of the friction I had for
| just starting projects. I need a tape measure? I know exactly
| where one is, it has a dedicated 3D printed holder on my
| pegboard which lets me get to work instead of spending 15
| minutes digging through drawers and shelves.
| nancyminusone wrote:
| Yes? My tape measures are in the tape measure box. White
| metal cabinet, lowest shelf on the right, cardboard box
| marked "tape measures." There's a dozen or so tape measures
| in there. Same place they've been the last 30 years.
|
| Making a custom enclosure for every tool seems over optimized
| and wasteful. If I were to attempt this, it would take
| decades and I'd never see a return on productivity within my
| lifetime.
| bethekidyouwant wrote:
| I'm not sure if having a box in a drawer in the cabinet
| with 10 tape measures is the flex you think it is
| SparkyMcUnicorn wrote:
| Using the OpenSCAD build to customize them is great!
|
| I've been able to print baseplates that fit precisely inside
| different drawers, add magnets, etc.
|
| https://github.com/kennetek/gridfinity-rebuilt-openscad
| wnolens wrote:
| A cool solution using only cardboard and hot glue. Love this
| person's channel.
|
| https://youtu.be/fUyQEPzpkLk?si=cADJNQbbquJCUBKD
| triceratops wrote:
| When I read "grid storage system" I had something very different
| in mind. I kept thinking "where are the batteries?"
| roter wrote:
| And I went straight to storing large numerical arrays, i.e.
| replacement for Zarr, NetCDF, HDF, etc
| justmarc wrote:
| Amazing, beautiful work!
| b0a04gl wrote:
| gridfinity makes repeatability physical. can dial in a layout
| that works , can clone it across benches ,rooms ,even teams.
| becomes a shared spatial logic. that alone cuts setup time and
| mental load more than any new tool
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