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Awesome 3d Printed

Mini Amp Desk Organizers

Mini Amp Desk Organizers
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Musicians – especially guitarists and bass players – will love these desk organizers that look like miniature guitar amps. Etsy seller Lions Print makes these 3D-printed pencil caddies and dresses them up with logos from popular amplifier makers. They’re available with silver or gold caps and can be personalized, too.

Mug Trap Self-Adjusting Drink Coaster

Mug Trap Self-Adjusting Drink Coaster

3D printing expert Lee David came across this cool design for a mechanical drink coaster. KrakDrag’s Mug Trap is based on the design of an animal trap, except instead of trapping bears, it traps beverages. When you place your cup, can, or mug on its center, its jaws clamp down on your drink. You can download the STL files to print your own on Cults 3D.

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Honeycomb DIY Storage Wall

Honeycomb DIY Storage Wall

Hexagons are the bestagons, so it only makes sense that they could make one of the most versatile DIY storage systems we’ve seen. Fix This Build That needed a place to store loose items in his workshop, so he 3D printed a honeycomb-shaped grid to hang on the wall, and that can accept custom modules like shelves, tool bins, and hooks.

Making a Miniature Stainless Steel Refrigerator

Making a Miniature Stainless Steel Refrigerator

Modelmaking has always fascinated us. Cath from The Square to Spare shows us the steps to make a miniature fridge that looks just like those fancy French door models. Its cabinet can be 3D printed or cut from balsa wood, with acrylic or resin shelves, wrapped in stainless steel contact paper, and lit with LED fairy lights.

Phone Addiction Kinetic Sculpture

Phone Addiction Kinetic Sculpture

After realizing how much time he spends on his phone, JBV Creative was inspired to build an electro-mechanical artwork as a commentary on the distracted nature of today’s gadget-dependent society. The finished piece features a group of phone-holding figures that wobble along on a conveyor belt, smash into a wall, fall down, and do it all over again.

NERF M134 Minigun

NERF M134 Minigun

NERF makes some cool blasters, but the custom community is always outdoing Hasbro’s factory toys. WalcomS7 shows off the world’s fastest NERF blaster, Gatling Tommy’s M134 minigun. The full-auto blaster has a 500-round capacity and fires 58 darts per second. It’s fed by a belt mechanism and an ammo backpack attached via a massive 3D-printed chain.

Helix Into Portal Illusion

Helix Into Portal Illusion

When you look at an old-timey barber pole, its stripes appear to spiral upward. Science educator Steve Mould shares a similar illusion designed by Ada Cohen that uses intertwined helixes to create the illusion that they’re disappearing endlessly into the top of the rig. Bottom line, spirals and helices have a way of messing with our brains.

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3D-Printed Infinite Fractal Zoom

3D-Printed Infinite Fractal Zoom

Using CGI, it’s possible to create fractal images that can be zoomed into infinitely. Inspired by the work of Feliks Konczakowski, mathematical artist Henry Segerman created an infinite zoom illusion using a real-world 3D-printed model. He pulled off the effect using a computer-controlled slider, a turntable, and precision editing.

Telephone Macro Keypad

Telephone Macro Keypad
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Isn’t this so adorable? This 9-key macro keypad looks like a tiny retro telephone. Steboards ships this USB macropad fully assembled with Gateron Red, Blue, or Brown mechanical switches. The keys come mapped to functions 13 to 21 but can be reprogrammed on request or using the included code and the Arduino IDE.

VW Microbus Pen Caddy

VW Microbus Pen Caddy
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The classic Volkswagen Type 2, aka Microbus, offered a cheerful way to carry passengers and their gear. Now this iconic van can hold your pens and pencils too. This 3D-printed desk accessory from SculpNude has dozens of hex-shaped holes in its roof and interior, making it perfect for organizing a set of colored pencils.

Basketball-Playing Machine

Basketball-Playing Machine

JBV Creative has engineered all kinds of neat mechanical devices, including an overcomplicated candy dispenser and a robot that types. This time, he built a pair of machines that endlessly toss tiny basketballs into each other’s hoops. You can purchase a 3D printable model of the Roboballer on JBV’s website.

Making a Mac Pro Mini

Making a Mac Pro Mini

While it’s been surpassed by machines running Apple silicon, the Mac Pro is still a powerful computer. It’s still quite large. The Wrench put the computer’s cheese grater case through the shrink-ray (3D printer) and created a Mac Pro Mini. His version has less robust LattePanda 3 Delta brains and runs Windows, but it’s still a neat build.

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Making a Robot Centipede

Making a Robot Centipede

Engineer James Bruton loves to build robots with unusual drivetrains. For his latest creation, he designed and fabricated a remote-controlled robot that ambles along on 20 legs, like a giant mechanical centipede. Despite its complexity, it’s quite nimble. Now can we get a version with 100 legs, James?

Semi-Automatic Rubber Band Gun

Semi-Automatic Rubber Band Gun

Most rubber band guns require manual reloading between shots. But Nagy Big designed a 3D-printed toy gun that can fire multiple rubber bands in sequence thanks to its spring-loaded mechanism and multi-band clip. If you want one for yourself, you can download the STL files on Printables.

Tiny Working Escalator

Tiny Working Escalator

Artist Luke Towan specializes in building models and dioramas. He recently finished making a 1:87th scale escalator that actually works. It took him almost a year to finish, but the completed piece is a marvel of miniature engineering. The 3D printing and laser cutting templates are available for download on Tinkercad.

Octopus Headphone Hanger

Octopus Headphone Hanger
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This sculptural octopus art can hold headphones, hats, purses, or small accessories. Its head and eight tentacles offer multiple hanging positions and come with hanging hardware. It’s one of the many fun 3D-printed headphone holders you can find in the M3is3D Etsy shop.

Ammo Chess Set

Ammo Chess Set
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This custom-made chess set from 3DCubedPrinting comes with pieces that look like ammunition. Its 3D-printed plastic pieces are based on different calibers of ammo, from .45 ACP pawns to a .50 BMG king. The set includes a storage box and all 32 chess pieces. An optional camouflage vinyl chess board is also available.

Making CO2-Powered Mini Torpedoes

Making CO2-Powered Mini Torpedoes

Inspired by the torpedoes on a submarine, electrosync wanted to see if he could make a tiny version to launch in a swimming pool. He designed 3D-printed shells for the mini torpedoes and powered them with CO2 cartridges. A spring mechanism gives them an initial push. Grab the STL files for free on Thangs.com. (Thanks, Bruce!)

3D-Printed GTA V Map

3D-Printed GTA V Map

Artist and designer Dom Riccobene painstakingly replicated the full single-player map of Los Santos from Grand Theft Auto V as a 3D model. Because of the size of his 3D printer, he broke the map down into 24 quadrants, then assembled each piece onto a 20″ x 30″ base. We enjoyed watching the map legend being carved too.

Giant Macro Keypad

Giant Macro Keypad

Adafruit Industries shows off a fun DIY project using oversize Kailh key switches to build three ginormous macro keys. The keys work just like the keys on a regular keyboard, only 64 times larger in volume. We want to see someone build an entire QWERTY keyboard with these things.

Sugar Lab 3D Printed Halloween Treats

Sugar Lab 3D Printed Halloween Treats

Sugar Lab’s mad scientists went batty for Halloween, using 3D printers to make edible sweets in seasonal shapes like Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Apple Covered Caramels turn the classic inside out with a caramel and apple butter filling, while Day of the Dead Glitter Skulls dissolve into edible glitter when plopped into cocktails.

Plastic Bottle Cap Cache

Plastic Bottle Cap Cache

Tokyo_Bird shared this 3D-printable design which makes use of plastic soda bottle caps for sealing small containers. They’re ideal for storing items like screws, washers, or pills. The design is available for download from Thingiverse. We’re not sure they fit U.S.-size bottle caps, but they include STL files for printing your own caps.

Five Impossible Figure Illusions

Five Impossible Figure Illusions

Our brains can be easily tricked by optical illusions. StruckDuck shows off five different 3D-printed objects which seem to defy logic but are just messing with our minds thanks to the camera’s perspective. You can download STL files for all of these objects on StruckDuck’s Etsy shop.

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