Learn SelfCAD- an Online 3D Modeling Software: Designing Stackable Jars

Are you ever rummaging around on your dresser to find a clip, collar stay, spare coins…? I am normally very unorganized and this one part of my day was driving me crazy so I tried being more organized and put a basket there to collect it all. Soon I collected too much stuff and I kept having to rummage through the basket to find what I’m looking for that always manages to be at the bottom. It got super frustrating and I started googling organization techniques when I came up with this!

This is why I made stackable jars. Each jar can hold a different small item, they stack and won’t fall so it doesn’t take up much desk/dresser/counter space, and following this tutorial you can add as many or as few jars as you want! They all have nut and bolt closing systems so they stay securely closed and you can change the stacking order of them too once they’re printed for ease of use! Note the colors in the cover picture are just to show the different pieces and how they’ll line up.

Step 1: Drop in a Cylinder

To start we’re going to drop in a cylinder. You don’t need to use these measurements if this doesn’t work for your space but here is what I did.

Step 2: Drop in Another Cylinder

Now we’re going to make our cylinder hollow, to do that let’s add a smaller cylinder. Note, I put my scene in wireframe mode so I can see what I’m doing.

Step 3: Bouillon: Difference

Now select both items and hit stitch and scoop, difference.

Step 4: Drop in a Screw and Nut

Awesome, now let’s add the screw and nut to close our jars. Because we don’t want our stuff getting stuck trying to get into the jar, I’m making the screw and nut large and will scale down to have a thin rim.

Step 5: Polygon Selection

Using polygon selection, part selection with a high tolerance, I can easily select the outside edges of our nut.

Step 6: Scale

Now scale it down to the same size as your cylinder making sure you don't scale the height

Step 7: Copy

Now copy all of these pieces as many times as you want jars. I made 2 copies so I would have 3 jars.

Step 8: Stack and Rename

The easiest way to do the next part is stack your jars, note I changed the colors of my screw and nut to make it easier for you to see what I’m doing. If you haven’t already done so then before you move onto the next step, rename your objects, trust me this will make your life easier. In order of how you stacked it, name each object respectively jar 1, jar 2, jar 3, nut 1, nut 2…….

Step 9: Bouillon: Union

Ok this part can get a little complicated so make sure to follow, click on jar 1 and nut 1 (they should be touching and stacked in your scene) and hit stitch and scoop, union.

Step 10: Bouillon: Union

Great, now click on jar 2 and nut 2 (they should be touching and stacked in your scene) and hit stitch and scoop, union again.

Step 11: Bouillon: Union

Now click on jar 3 and nut 3 (they should be touching and stacked in your scene) and hit stitch and scoop, union again.

Step 12: Leftovers

If you followed that correctly then these are the pieces you should have left.

Step 13: Lid

Make a cylinder that will be the lid for the top of our stack of jars.

Now we’re going back to being complicated, also I wasn’t able to take a picture because the whole thing wasn’t in view at the same time

Use stitch and scoop, union for each screw and the shape on top of it. Meaning screw 1 and union 2, screw 2 and union 3, and screw 3 and the new cylinder lid. Each screw and its respective shape should be touching before you use union.

If you want to make more jars in your stack then copy more of the pieces, stack them and make sure you union the correct touching pieces!