Desk Organizer

Summary (TLDR)

Designed, modeled, and 3D-printed 12 drawer compartments to improve item organization and practice using OnShape modeling tools.

Context

My drawer was a mess. All my desk items were randomly thrown into the same drawer, making me have to riffle through a swath of items to just find a pen. To fix this, I bought and tried some common plastic organizers that failed me for these reasons:

• The plastic organizers aren't sized to fit my drawer so item space is wasted.

• The plastic organizers slide around in the drawer when opening and closing.

• Items got stuck and lost under the plastic organizers.

• It was too easy to throw items in whatever open compartment there was, so the organizers just turned unorganized.

• The plastic organizers iteself had too many items assigned to each compartment, so it's intended organization was unclear.

Goal

Create a robust drawer organization system that makes it simple and quick to acquire and replace desired items while minimizing material cost. 

Additional motive: To practice 3D Modeling in OnShape and learn about the capabilities of 3D printing.

System Requirements

• Organizer must include all essential desk supplies and materials.

• Organizer must not shift when opening and closing drawer

• Organizer must be easy to remove and assemble (no tape, glue, or metal fasteners)

• Organizer must be logically arranged (most used items in easiest place to reach

• Organizer must survive daily consistent use for at least 2 years

• Items in organzizer must be easy to retrieve

• Items in organizer must stay in intended compartment

Initial Idea

Create 3D printed slots for each item to perfectly arrange each supplies in the same place every time. By creating fully custom molds for my most used items, everything has a home and everything would stay perfectly organized over a long period of time.

Risk Mitigation and Additional Justification

• "New items or replacing old items require an entirely new CAD model and 3D print"

  • For frequently replaced items, such as pencils, pencils, and erasers, containers will be designed to fit a wide range of shapes and sizes of those objects. Additionally, container sizes will be standardized and easily replaceable.

  • For not frequently replaced items, such as calipers or staplers, a more permenant CAD model is justifiable.

• "Less items fit inside the drawer"

  • Less items being able to be put inside the drawer is also an advantage, because it promotes minimalism and forces the user to be intentional about what they put inside their most used drawer.

• "Cost of filament exceeds COTS organization containers"

  • Filament use will be minimized by changing various print settings to minimize container cost.

• "Takes more time to set up"

  • The system would only have to be set up once, and the time spent designing each module would be a time investment that would be gained back in speed of aquiring items and reduing decluttering time.

Methods of Filament Minimization 

• Reducing infill

  • Reducing infill reduces filament use.

• Infill variability

  • The bottom layers have very low infill, and as the layers get closer to the top, the infill gets progressivly more dense.

  • Compartments only need strength on the top layer, so infill variability loads item weight evenly throughout the whole structure while maintaining necessary strength.

  • Increasing infill closer to the top maintains an accurate top layer, because higher infill supports the layer when cooling so it does not droop when the pla is melted.

• Removing bottom layer

  • The bottom layer is unseen and does not help with the structural integrity of this use case.

• Reducing wall size 

  • There is no loading on the sides of the compartments, so minimizing wall size reduces filament use with little effective strength change.

• Increasing top layer thickness

  • Increases rigidity of the important top layer.

Specific Design Decisions

• When drawer is fully pulled out, the back of the drawer is covered, making it difficult to retrieve items placed in the back. 

  • In response, longer items are placed in the back (such as scissors, staplers, rulers and calipers), so the space is being used effectively while making it easy to retrieve.

• Pens and Pencils are the most used, so they are put in the front, and oriented horizontally so the drawer does not need to be pulled out fully to access.

  • The most used pens are put in a removable compartment in the top, and graphite is stored under to maximize used vertical space.

• Items are usually oriented vertically to also increase used vertical space.

Reflection and Future Work 

• Had I known sooner, I would have adapted the storage system to work with the gridfinity, to make it adaptable to more drawers.

• The containers could also be designed to be parametric, so that designing each compartment would take less time.

• Through this project, I practiced and improved my CAD skills in OnShape and learned various techniques such as:

  • Using splines to accurately design containers to trace item shape

  • Using split tool to make containers fit printbed

• In the past two years, the organization system was successful. I have not had to replace any items that require additional design and the drawer has maintained organization.