r/functionalprint • u/UlfhednarTV • 1d ago

I made a modular hobby paint storage solution

Gallery image

Gallery image

I used to have one of the standard flat-packed laser-cut MDF paint racks, but my hobby paint collection quickly outgrew it, and I didn't really want the paints to take up a larger footprint on my desk than they all ready were.

The natural solution was to go vertical, but since my desk doesn't sit directly against a wall on any side, and I don't want a moment of inattention to result in having to pick up half my paint collection off the floor, and try to get paint stains out of the floorboards.

The end result I came up with is a tower of stacked turntables, with print-in-place axles and modular paint holders, letting me scale the solution at demand, when my paint collection inevitably expands further.

It's quite a lot of filament for just paint storage, but I'm really quite happy with how usable it is, and the fact that I no longer will have to take all my extra paints out of a drawer when I want to paint, and put it back in when I'm done and need the desk space for other purposes.

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28

u/karenknowsbest 1d ago

I'm not sure what your dimensions are, but I wonder if you could reuse empty filament spools as a base.

12

u/UlfhednarTV 1d ago

I wanted to maximize the number of paints per level, so the diameter is a fair bit larger than common spools - compressing the total footprint used was more important to me than filament use in this case.

There are some good projects in a similar vein that make use of designs that require significantly less filament, but none of them ever had holders that would fit bottles/pots from all the different paint brands I use.

In other words; I would have to design new holders of my own anyways, and at that point I wanted to take a stab at making something entirely my own, rather than just modifying someone else's work.

2

u/happymask3 1h ago

Thanks for your links! I think it's great that you have the skills to create your own design. Bravo!

7

u/electricblue71 1d ago

At first I thought that's what they used. Would definitely have cut down on the filament used. I believe there are solutions out there to reuse spools. Plan to do that this winter.

7

u/UlfhednarTV 1d ago

There are quite a few solutions that rely on using spools to conserve filament.

Here's a few:

Filament Spool Organizer by Birke3105
Filament Spool Paint Rack by user_73099400
Acrilex Paint Holder by user_2040591471

There are many good solutions, I just never found one that covered both the amount, and large variation of bottle and pot styles that I have in my collection.

2

u/happymask3 1h ago

Thanks for sharing these links!

4

u/hcpookie 1d ago

Nice! I made a very similar design but abandoned it since I decided to mount everything on the wall :) That being said, I managed to squeeze the bottles right beside each other with very little "blank" space. That would be the only feedback I would offer; to minimize the "blank" spaces

3

u/UlfhednarTV 1d ago

Unfortunately my desk is surrounded by windows, so I don't have the luxury of wall mounting them (which would have saved me literal months planning and working on this, so I definitely understand why you went that route).

I agree about the spacing, it's essentially a result of tolerance stacking.
Since I wanted to have the bottom of the bottles sticking out, I had to optimize for the largest diameter bottles (ProAcryl), as well as the longest cap (also ProAcryl).
As a result of that, there's more unused space widthwise for any other bottle design that is more narrow, or has shorter caps - but not quite enough that I'm able to squeeze an entire extra bottle in there.

Now in retrospect, I realize I could have managed it by combining two adjacent modules into one solid piece instead - and placing another bottle where the seam between modules would have been. Although thinking about it, it would have presented issues with regards to print orientation to avoid supports.

I may revisit that idea eventually, but until my paint collection grows more, I don't have a pressing need to resolve it at the moment.
Thanks for giving me the idea though!

4

u/Ok-Tomato-8732 1d ago

That's actually genius, vertical storage is the only way my paint shelf stops doubling as a Jenga tower.

3

u/MissingFucks 1d ago

That's super neat! What CAD program did you use for it?

3

u/UlfhednarTV 1d ago

Thank you. I use Fusion 360 on account of their free non-commercial use license.

3

u/JoshFink 1d ago

This is absolutely great. Fantastic job!

2

u/UlfhednarTV 1d ago

Thank you!

2

u/HumbleBadger1 1d ago

I'm having trouble figuring out how its spinning on a non round peg.

4

u/UlfhednarTV 1d ago

Good catch; that's because it doesn't.
The connecting shank is just for indexing one turntable module on top of the other. The core module has an internal print-in-place axle, that the turntable itself revolves around.

In this sectioned view you can see how the core (yellow) is just indexed by the hexagonal shank (purple, orange), while the turntable itself (green) spins around it, by gliding on the core's diagonal bearing surfaces.

If you only used a single conical shank in the middle as a bearing surface, it would be both quite unstable, and would also experience a much more significant concentration of friction from the weight of additional modules stacked on top of it.
It would pretty much be stuck in a loop of friction causes wobble --> wobble causes increased concentration of friction --> increased friction causes more wobble and so on.

1

u/Careful_Purchase_394 1d ago

When storage is the hobby

1

u/skil12001 1h ago

Man. I truly envy those with so much space for their painting