Adjustable Car Drink Holder (Silly Solutions)

Hello!

My name is Peter Otoshi, and I recently learned the basics of TinkerCad as part of my Computer Aided Design course for 11th grade. I was brainstorming how to solve everyday problems we encounter, and one issue I thought of is how car drink holders often fail to provide a firm, secure fit for the many different drink sizes. While adjustable drink holders exist, they are often very heavy and rather expensive, so I wanted to try and create a 3D printable solution.

Step 1: Brainstorming

I began by using an idea board to determine what I wanted to accomplish through the project. From the onset I envisioned a sort of corkscrew mechanism, in which the drink would be placed into an outer shell, which would then be screwed into the bottom base.

Step 2: Modifying Prototypes

My biggest challenge was becoming familiar with the TinkerCad software and modeling exactly what I wanted to do. I began by creating the upper shell to screw the drink into, although I ended up changing my original prototype several times to create sturdier structures. I wanted to make the bottom base adjustable to any size car drink holder, which is how I created the red fin shapes to make a firm lock.

Step 3: Final Product

In the end, I decided to go with screws instead of fins to create the firm fit. The drink will be placed in the green cup so that the red screws would secure the drink. The threads that would be pushed out would help lock in the base.

While this is far from a perfect design, brainstorming ways to fix the everyday issue of drinks tipping over while driving was a helpful opportunity to think creatively and get familiar with the extremely useful software of TinkerCad!