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Gridfinity: The modular, open-source grid storage system

https://gridfinity.xyz/
123•nateb2022•5h ago

Comments

stevenpetryk•4h ago
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•4h ago
You can use this custom gridfinity generator.

https://gridfinity.perplexinglabs.com/

Ironically printing custom pelican inserts with this right now

KeplerBoy•3h ago
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•2h ago
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•2h ago
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...

Gigachad•3h ago
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•1h ago
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.
defrost•4h ago
Warning (or recommendation):

  Impossibly ambitious cleanup campaigns are like catnip to ADHD havers
lvturner•2h ago
sighs in stalled project and half organised gridfinity cupboard

Though the plus side to this is that it can be done somewhat inrementally

jot•3h ago
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•2h ago
Wow this is amazing.
ffsm8•1h ago
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•1h ago
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•20m ago
If the bacteria on toilet rolls was an actual problem, toothbrushes would be a much bigger issue than storage tubs.
bjackman•44m ago
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•35m ago
But, importantly, you can 3D print a dildo mold.
Gigachad•2h ago
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•2h ago
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•2h ago
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•2h ago
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•21m ago
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.
thebruce87m•1h ago
What does “draw” mean in this context?
nimos•58m ago
I assume it is drawers.
kalev•2h ago
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.
grigri907•2h ago
Learn from my mistake: Not at all about the electrical grid and energy storage strategies.

Great in its own right though

morjom•2h ago
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•2h ago
Why mention multiboard and not honeycomb storage wall (HSW)? It's open source and arguably a better ecosystem.
morjom•2h ago
I didn't come across it is why. I'll add it.
lrvick•31m ago
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%

pjc50•42m ago
OK, a hex grid wall is really appealing. Now I just need to find a local printer ..
lrvick•29m ago
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!
SOLAR_FIELDS•2h ago
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•2h ago
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•2h ago
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.

pavelrub•2h ago
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•2h ago
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•1h ago
https://outline.georgs.lv
cgjohn•1h ago
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•1h ago
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•1h ago
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•26m ago
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.

slau•2h ago
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•1h ago
Yeah his video was linked on the page and i found him incredibly entertaining. Agreed, he’s a very clever writer.
d--b•2h ago
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•1h ago
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•32m ago
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.

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