I organized my life with 3d printing (without any autocad skills)
By: cloudyhills
A practical approach to 3D printing for organization — no CAD skills required.
cloudyhills (a beginner to 3D printing) rebuilds an IKEA Alex drawer into a fully organized work studio using free generators, 2D illustration skills, and a Bambu Lab P2S printer — no AutoCAD knowledge needed. This video is sponsored by Bambu Lab.
Key Points
- Start with generators, not CAD. The Makerworld Organizer Generator by Musielovsky lets you customize container shape, dimensions, wall thickness, and corner radius. Measure, generate, save the STL, drop into Bambu Studio (one-click plate arrangement), and print.
- The 2D-skills shortcut. To make a “fancier” top layer, draw the side profile of a wave as an SVG in Illustrator, import it into Tinkercad (free, Lego-like web tool), rotate/stretch, merge with a container base, export STL, and print. No 3D modeling skills required.
- Shadow-box method (fit anything perfectly). (1) Photograph the item next to a ruler, using zoom to prevent warping; (2) scale it in a vector program against the ruler; (3) outline with basic shapes (mirror if symmetrical); (4) offset 1–2mm and export SVG; (5) import to Tinkercad, extrude to ~50–60% of the item’s height, and cut as a hole. Used to make stacking holders for her scissors and cutter.
- Simple wins, modular wins. Simple clip-based dividers from scrap hardboard organized a gift-wrap drawer in 5 minutes. For full flexibility, Gridfinity: print a clip-together grid, then generate any box size (half-pitch feet for placement flexibility).
- Prototype before committing. Print mini versions to test tolerances (ruler slots, magnet fit) and cutout “test fits” for shadow boxes — a few cents and minutes per prototype.
- Hardware notes. Bambu P2S (“Koala”) prints PLA (beginner-friendly) and PETG (needs a drying cycle in the AMS), with a quick-swap 0.2mm nozzle for fine details and AMS auto color-switching. The A1 mini is the budget/compact option; the H2 series adds laser cutting.
- Ecosystem. Makerworld hosts free community designs (planter, treehouse, KaboEditions lamp); the Bambu Handy app can send a file to print with one tap on your phone.