notetoself-studio-e7higb.txt (13764B)
1 [1]Note to Self 2 by Gina Trapani 3 [2]About 4 [3]Newsletter 5 [4]Projects 6 [5](Search) 7 8 [6]The joy of making stuff with a 3D printer 9 10 Aug 31, 2026 11 12 [7] The joy of making stuff with a 3D printer 13 [8]Gina Trapani 14 15 I’ve always been curious about 3D printers, so last fall when there was a Black 16 Friday deal on a great model, I picked one up. I wondered if it would be one of 17 these gadgets my family would play with for a couple months then forget about, 18 but it turns out: we haven’t stopped printing since. 19 20 Whenever I tell anyone about it, the first question is, “What do you do with 21 it?” At first it was making lots of silly fidget toys and figurines for my kid. 22 Then it became about a lot more than toys. 23 24 A month or so in, during a dark and depressing winter, the printer gave me 25 unexpected purpose. I joined a [9]community of people 3D printing community ICE 26 alert whistles. Over the course of a few months I personally printed and 27 shipped several thousand whistles across the country. I was just one tiny node 28 in a giant decentralized network of likeminded people trying to protect our 29 communities, but it made me feel so connected and hopeful. 30 31 When I wasn’t printing whistles and fidgets, the thing I came to love printing 32 the most is household stuff—all the gadgets and containers and tools and 33 doodads that make our lives easier, nicer, and more organized. 34 35 I started small with stuff like planters, closet door hooks, a remote control 36 holder, chopstick holders, travel containers, and a 2-in-1 iPhone and AirPods 37 charging stand. I got more ambitious making jewelry boxes, a travel version of 38 Tetris, soap dishes, a toilet paper stand, a desk organizer, and even a 39 shelving unit. 40 41 [10] A collage of 3D printed household objects, including a remote control 42 holder, a planter, a desktop organizer, a dental pick holder, a travel Tetris 43 game, and a unicorn-shaped kids jewelry box. 44 A few things I’ve printed. From top left: A remote control holder, a planter, a 45 desktop organizer, a dental pick holder, a travel Tetris game, and a 46 unicorn-shaped kids jewelry box. 47 48 I even designed my own very simple first model and published it here: a [11] 49 minimal electrical outlet cover. 50 51 The household projects that brought my little heart the greatest satisfaction 52 were thanks to an open, extensible organization system called [12]Gridfinity. 53 This modular system helps you organize drawers of stuff—think junk drawers, 54 kitchen utensils, office supplies, tools—into customized, perfectly fitted 55 containers that snap into a grid. (Its creator Zack Freedman also made [13]one 56 of the greatest project announcement YouTube videos ever.) Freedman released 57 Gridfinity under an open license, which means the 3D printing community has 58 made and published endless Gridfinity-compatible models, which make it so easy 59 to pick and choose what you need off the shelf. 60 61 Once I discovered Gridfinity, I went to town. When life feels out of control, 62 there are few things more soothing than organizing small objects in little 63 boxes. 64 65 I started with a messy drawer of office supplies I used to rummage through, 66 inevitably poking myself with a thumbtack in the process. 67 68 Here’s the Gridfinity baseplate, and a couple of the containers I printed to 69 organize this mess. The bottoms are designed to snap into the grid. I added a 70 little yellow top edge for clearer visuals. 71 72 [14] Gridfinity baseplate with three simple plain white containers with yellow 73 edges. 74 Gridfinity baseplate with three plain containers of different sizes. 75 76 I also printed custom, green containers for various battery sizes, which have 77 spots to glue in little magnets if you want extra stickiness. 78 79 [15] Gridfinity containers customized to hold AAA and D batteries. 80 Gridfinity containers customized to hold AAA and D batteries. 81 82 Here’s the final, organized version of the drawer. It’s never been easier to 83 grab a battery or a thumbtack now without hurting myself. 84 85 [16] The satisfying end result. 86 The satisfying end result. — Gina Trapani 87 88 I’ve also Gridfinitied my kitchen utensil drawer. Take that, Rubbermaid. 89 90 [17] [gridfinity] 91 Compared to our old tray (right), the Gridfinity version fits exactly to the 92 utensils and uses every bit of space. 93 94 All in all, I’ve derived so much more joy from a hard-to-justify 3D printer 95 purchase than I expected. Yes, the printer with all the filament spools and 96 related tools take up a lot of space; it occasionally jams and needs 97 maintenance; more complicated prints require babysitting multiple plates over 98 the course of hours; I worry about landfills and wasted filament. But having 99 our own little personal factory to make things we need, learning and teaching 100 my kid about 3D modeling and making a digital drawing real through tools we 101 have at home, and appreciating others’ amazing creativity and generosity in the 102 community has been far worth it. 103 104 [18]Frequently Asked Questions 105 106 Reading about how others got into 3D printing helped me take the leap myself, 107 so here are some questions curious friends and fellow nerds have asked me. 108 109 [19]What printer did you get and why? 110 111 I bought the [20]Bambu P1S. I got it with an [21]AMS so I could print with 112 multiple colors. (This was my first pre-purchase lesson: The printer alone only 113 handles one roll of filament and therefore one color at a time. The AMS lets 114 the printer change colors automatically during a print.) I picked this model 115 because the 3D printing YouTubers I watch plus a couple trusted friends all 116 said it was a great printer for the price, which at the time was just under 117 $600. Now as of writing the P1S by itself is $399. 118 119 I didn’t have any prior printer to compare the P1S to, but as a complete 120 beginner I was able to assemble it, plug it in, and start making stuff very 121 quickly. I’ve come to appreciate that it is a beautiful machine designed to be 122 taken apart, serviced by the user, and easily reassembled: refreshing in a 123 world of sealed electronics. [22]Bambu’s thorough documentation includes videos 124 on how to address common problems—things like jams and stuck filament spools. 125 Even after just a few months of printing, I feel like I have a decent mental 126 model of how the machine works and have even developed an intuition for what’s 127 going right or wrong with a print when I hear it make certain sounds. 128 129 Mainly you control the printer through the [23]Bambu Handy software, which does 130 a lot more than I expected. It lets you modify and customize the model before 131 you print it, livestreams a video of your print in progress to your app, and 132 records timelapse videos, which are always fun to watch. There are some rough 133 edges to the app, but there are regular updates to it and over the last 9 134 months of releases it’s gotten better and easier to use. The mobile apps are 135 not as fully-featured as the desktop app and I hope to see them catch up, but 136 it does feel like magic to start and watch a print on my phone. 137 138 [24]Where do you find these objects? 139 140 [25]Makerworld is a community site of 3D models that you can download and print 141 for free. Similar to shared public code on GitHub, users take models they like, 142 make modifications, and re-upload to the original maker, or upload a whole new 143 design to the site. A decent system of ratings and boosts incentivize 3D 144 designers to share their work, and deep discussions and photos of prints in the 145 comments give you lots of information about how things will go if you commit 146 your printer time and filament to the model. There are several other sites like 147 Makerworld including [26]Printables, but because it’s in the Bambu ecosystem 148 I’ve mostly stuck to Makerworld. 149 150 [27]What have you made? 151 152 Way too many things to list, but a handful of my favorite prints so far include 153 these things. 154 155 For kids: 156 157 • [28]Flexi Pangolin 158 • [29]Hedgehog Fidget Clicker 159 • [30]Squishy Loopz Spiral Donut 160 • [31]Pencil Slide-on Name (especially good for kids with less common names) 161 • [32]Unicorn Jewelry Box 162 • [33]Flexi Spider 163 • [34]Chopstick Helper 164 165 And a few things for grown-ups: 166 167 • [35]MagDock V2: iPhone and Apple Watch MagSafe Phone Holder 168 • [36]Drift and [37]Polygon Planters 169 • [38]Ultimate Gridfinity Kitchen Drawer Organizer v2 170 • [39]Parametric Stackable Boxes 171 • [40]Zen Japanese Tea House 172 • [41]Modern Box for Jewelry / Watches / Tea / Firstaid 173 • [42]Q-Tip Travel Container 174 • [43]Small Two-Tone Whistle 175 • [44]Soap Dish Sponge Holder Collection 176 • [45]Tray box 177 178 What are your favorite 3D models? [46]Send me all the links. 179 180 [47] Aug 31, 2026 [48]#3d-printing [49]#hardware 181 182 More posts 183 184 • [50]A 2026 detour Aug 14, 2026 185 • [51]Net fulfillment over net worth Jan 23, 2026 186 • [52]Intentions over resolutions, habits over goals Jan 15, 2026 187 • [53]New year, new notebook Jan 6, 2026 188 • [54]Best things I watched, listened to, and read in 2025 Dec 22, 2025 189 • [55]Weekend computer build Dec 3, 2025 190 • [56]Stuff I built just for me in 2025 Nov 25, 2025 191 • [57]Maintenance versus making Nov 6, 2025 192 • [58]Measured AI Oct 20, 2025 193 • [59]Halftime Oct 8, 2025 194 195 Get the monthly [60]newsletter: 196 [61][ ] [62][Subscribe] 197 [63]Note to Self is a blog about [64]creativity over productivity by [65]Gina 198 Trapani. 199 200 Read more [66]about Note to Self, subscribe to the [67]newsletter or [68]feed, 201 or dive into the archives: [69]posts, [70]links, and [71]quotes. 202 203 Want to reprint something? [72]Just ask. 204 205 [73](Toggle theme)☾ 206 [74][ ] 207 208 209 References: 210 211 [1] https://notetoself.studio/ 212 [2] https://notetoself.studio/about/ 213 [3] https://notetoself.studio/about/#newsletter 214 [4] https://notetoself.studio/projects/ 215 [6] https://notetoself.studio/post/the-joy-of-3d-printing/ 216 [7] https://notetoself.studio/post/the-joy-of-3d-printing/ 217 [8] https://ginatrapani.org/ 218 [9] https://notetoself.studio/link/3d-printed-whistles/ 219 [10] https://notetoself.studio/post/the-joy-of-3d-printing/3d-printed-collage.png 220 [11] https://makerworld.com/en/models/2380914-minimal-outlet-cover-plug-in-us-standard#profileId-2607230 221 [12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gridfinity 222 [13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra_9zU-mnl8 223 [14] https://notetoself.studio/post/the-joy-of-3d-printing/gridfinity-grid.jpeg 224 [15] https://notetoself.studio/post/the-joy-of-3d-printing/gridfinity-batteries.jpeg 225 [16] https://notetoself.studio/post/the-joy-of-3d-printing/gridfinitied-drawer.jpeg 226 [17] https://notetoself.studio/post/the-joy-of-3d-printing/gridfinity-kitchen-drawer.jpeg 227 [18] https://notetoself.studio/post/the-joy-of-3d-printing/#frequently-asked-questions 228 [19] https://notetoself.studio/post/the-joy-of-3d-printing/#what-printer-did-you-get-and-why 229 [20] https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/p1s 230 [21] https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/ams-multicolor-printing 231 [22] https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/p1 232 [23] https://bambulab.com/en/download/app 233 [24] https://notetoself.studio/post/the-joy-of-3d-printing/#where-do-you-find-these-objects 234 [25] https://makerworld.com/en 235 [26] https://www.printables.com/ 236 [27] https://notetoself.studio/post/the-joy-of-3d-printing/#what-have-you-made 237 [28] https://makerworld.com/en/models/1090887-flexi-pangolin 238 [29] https://makerworld.com/en/models/1891920-hedgehog-fidget-clicker 239 [30] https://makerworld.com/en/models/2885863-squishy-loopz-spiral-donut 240 [31] https://makerworld.com/en/models/2374615-customizable-parametric-pencil-slide-on-name 241 [32] https://makerworld.com/en/models/1668867-unicorn-jewelry-box-ams-not-a-must 242 [33] https://makerworld.com/en/models/631666-flexi-spider-articulated 243 [34] https://makerworld.com/en/models/153577-chopstick-helper 244 [35] https://makerworld.com/en/models/1538338-magdock-v2-iphone-and-apple-watch-magsafe-phone-ho 245 [36] https://makerworld.com/en/models/855454-drift-planter 246 [37] https://makerworld.com/en/models/474831-polygon-planter-wrap-around-plate 247 [38] https://makerworld.com/en/models/3033870-ultimate-gridfinity-kitchen-drawer-organizer-v2 248 [39] https://makerworld.com/en/models/392542-parametric-stackable-box#profileId-293647 249 [40] https://makerworld.com/en/models/2343138-zen-japanese-tea-house 250 [41] https://makerworld.com/en/models/1303021-modern-box-for-jewelry-watches-tea-firstaid 251 [42] https://makerworld.com/en/models/1879304-q-tip-travel-container 252 [43] https://makerworld.com/en/models/1181642-small-two-tone-whistle 253 [44] https://makerworld.com/en/models/1870601-soap-dish-sponge-holder-collection-2 254 [45] https://makerworld.com/en/models/1062326-tray-box#profileId-1050767 255 [46] https://notetoself.studio/about/#contact-me 256 [47] https://notetoself.studio/post/the-joy-of-3d-printing/ 257 [48] https://notetoself.studio/tags/3d-printing 258 [49] https://notetoself.studio/tags/hardware 259 [50] https://notetoself.studio/post/that-2026-detour/ 260 [51] https://notetoself.studio/post/net-fulfillment-over-net-worth/ 261 [52] https://notetoself.studio/post/intentions-over-resolutions-habits-over-goals/ 262 [53] https://notetoself.studio/post/new-year-new-notebook/ 263 [54] https://notetoself.studio/post/best-things-i-watched-listened-to-and-read-in-2025/ 264 [55] https://notetoself.studio/post/weekend-computer-build/ 265 [56] https://notetoself.studio/post/stuff-i-built-just-for-me-in-2025/ 266 [57] https://notetoself.studio/post/maintenance-versus-making/ 267 [58] https://notetoself.studio/post/measured-ai/ 268 [59] https://notetoself.studio/post/halftime/ 269 [60] https://notetoself.studio/about/#newsletter 270 [63] https://notetoself.studio/ 271 [64] https://notetoself.studio/post/creativity-over-productivity/ 272 [65] https://ginatrapani.org/ 273 [66] https://notetoself.studio/about/ 274 [67] https://notetoself.studio/about/#newsletter 275 [68] https://notetoself.studio/index.xml 276 [69] https://notetoself.studio/post/ 277 [70] https://notetoself.studio/link/ 278 [71] https://notetoself.studio/quote/ 279 [72] https://notetoself.studio/about/#contact-me