Since I'll soon start working on my masters thesis at TU-Berlin, it was time to clean up my workspace at home. With a monitor, a laptop, keyboard and accessories, my small desk (appropriately sized for my small room) just doesn't have the space to hold all the miscelanious stuff that usually ends up on desks: pens, usb sticks, SD cards, letters that I haven't decided whether they can be thrown out or should be kept.

Sure, I could put it in the drawers and file the letters into a correct folder immediately, but first of all, I know myself that that's not how I operate. I also actually like having things out in the open, more of a workshop, everything ready to grab immediately vibe than a fancy minimalist setup.

Since I recently acquired a 3D printer, I'll be using that alongside Fusion 360. At the end of my "engineering sciences" degree coming up in half a year or so, I'll be losing the students licenses to all other CAD programs, so inspired by the contest, I might as well get used to the one application that will stay available to me.

Supplies

A PC with fusion360
3D Printer
Mug with broken handle
measuring tools (ruler, measuring calipers etc.)
some screws
files, knife etc. to clean up 3D prints

Step 1: Collect Ideas

I took a good look at what things keep occupying my desk, so I can figure out what needs a space:

Pens
USB sticks
SD cards
USB cables
Letters

There is also miscelanious clutter, but the goal of this first step is to make good places for the stuff that actually belongs in this workspace. I'll work on finding a space for the other stuff later.

Step 2: Designing the Pencil Holder

A mug to keep pencils is probably the oldest trick in the book and I happen to have a nice mug with a motive of my hometown Lüneburg, that suffered from a broken handle. But why should it occupy desk space and risk getting kicked over? Let's mount it to the wall.

The idea is to have two identical rings, which bolt to the wall supporting the mug from the top and the bottom. Very slim in design, so that it doesn't hide the pretty motive. So fire up Fusion 360 and start designing:

Sketch and dimension the basic shape:
Inner diameter of the ring
outer diameter of the ring
diameter of the support from the bottom/top
Shape of the wallmount

I like having everything in one sketch, makes it easier to adjust dimensions later, the fewer sketches, the better. Also, not critical, but I recommend dimensioning sketches in a way that sets up "logical" dependencies for future adjustments. In this case for example, the ID of the ring (diameter of the mug) is dimensioned explicitly, with the OD of the ring dimensioned as the distance (wall thickness) from that.

Just a small habit to get into, really not that critical for simple parts like this as you can just quickly adjust everything, but for more complex parts it's crucial.

Extrude the main body
First the whole body without the "bottom support"
Then part that supports the mug from the bottom
Add mounting holes
Always neat to countersink them, fusion 360 has options for that if you use the "hole" tool
Add a chamfer
This was drilled into me in mechanical engineering classes. Anywhere a part is inserted into another part, there should be a chamfer to make it easier.
Add some rounding
just to make everything look a bit nicer, add some rounding to some of the edges

Step 3: Slice and Print the Mug Holders

Export into a .stl (which I figured out is best done through the "3D print" function in fusion 360) open in Cura. It can also be setup to immediately open Cura, which is neat. (Maybe I'll dive into CAM for 3D printing with fusion 360 later, but I didn't quite have the time/motivation to do that now, since I know Cura works well enough for me and this purpose).

My print settings (for PLA) can be seen in the picture they worked rather well and produced a sturdy part. My only mistake was that I tried printing it "upside down" (from the perspective of the bottom piece). I had a weird theory on how that would make the outside surfaces look neater and thought I could get away with the overhang. I sort of did, but there were still some defects and more importantly, it was ever so slightly to tight for the mug.

So I decided to consider this a test piece-the good thing about this process is that it does make adjustments easy.

Step 4: Adjust and Reprint

I made some changes (increase the ID, took away some wallthickness, bigger holes for the mounting screws, different rounding, flipped around in the slicer to avoid overhangs...).

Confident that this time I got it right, I decided to print both the bottom and top together (identical parts). My final version is attached here, if you happen to have a 83mm (or slightly smaller) mug around, feel free to use this.

stiftehalter.stl
Download View in 3D

Step 5: Clean Up and Mount

First, clean up the 3D prints, I use a knife to clean up the brim and gave it a light sanding to clean it up. I still ended up with some small defects on the overhanging parts (the rounding), I guess support may help. But since this is black, I just gave it a slight sanding and from a meter away you don't notice.

I mounted the bottom mount to the wall first, with some blackened drywall screws. The angled screws make it slightly tricky, I found the best way was to screw in one side fully, then do the other side. Then place the mug on the bottom, and the top mount afterwards. Screw in the screws on top - and done. Aside from the small defects in the 3D print, I'm very happy with the outcome. Very sturdy, the screws are nice and discreet and the design of the mug still shines through.

Step 6: On to the Next Items

SD cards and USB sticks: they get less and less use, since everything is in some cloud somewhere and the internet is fast. But sometimes, they are still useful, but the problem is that they always get lost under something. SD cards usually stay in the camera (or phone, or 3D printer), but I have a few spare ones that always end up in random places. So, let's make a simple mount for these.

Step 7: Designing the USB-Stick &SD-Card Holder

I wanted space for 3 USB-Sticks, 3 SD cards and 3 micro SD cards. That's more than I have lying around usually, but it's better to leave some room for future expansion I think. I also wanted to try hidden screws - purely for aesthetic reasons. So I designed these small slots in the back, so that the bolt head can go into the round hole, but is held into the slot.

I won't go into much detail of the CAD process here, as it's pretty much the same as before. Take some measurements, make some 2D sketches, extrude/cut, add some chamfers and rounding, done. It always takes a bit longer than you expect to get it "just right", but that's the amazing thing about CAD, you can easily iterate and make small changes before producing any parts.

USB_holder.stl
Download View in 3D

Step 8: Slicing, Printing, Cleanup

I wanted to avoid using supports inside the USB-slots or the SD card -slots as they would be a pain to clean up. So this was my solution, printing it at an angle, where both of them had overhangs that would be fine without support. Of course, this meant using supports on the bottom, including the slots for the wallmount. A bit annoying to clean those up, but since it's on the wall, I just did a rough cleanup with a file and called it good enough.

Step 9: Mount to the Wall

I testfitted the screws to the part, to check if they would work - which luckily it did. I'm not super happy with the design of them (I think instead of a trapezoidal slot, a rectangular slot would work, ideally with a bit of an angle so that it "tightens"), but for a first attempt, it did work well enough.

Then mount the screws to the wall, slide the part on, voilà, it works. Well, of course some fiddling was require to figure out how far the screws need to be screwed in, but it wasn't too bad.

Step 10: Fill With Stuff and Admire Your Work

Looks neat, doesn't it? Let's see how long it lasts, but having a good place to put my stuff is helping me keep my desk more tidy so far. I'll definetely make some similar ones in the future, certainly one for USB cables and something to hold letters, but for now I'll call it a success.

(Stay tuned for future organisation gadgets, or look at my tool mount instructable: https://www.instructables.com/Screwdriver-and-File-Wallmount-Custom-3D-Printed/ for more inspiration)