What are the most useful things you've printed?

At work we have a bunch of phones that were just plugged in sitting at my desk randomly. I got tired of the mess and 3D printed a tower to put them in. Complete with trays to quickly slide them in and out, fans to keep them cool and, slide in filters for the fans.

I need to finish some last modifications before I share it all. But if anyone’s interest I’ll try to share the link.

My washing machine broke. Wouldn't drain. I took it apart and realized it was going to be a huge pain to fix if I didn't drain it first, but it wouldn't drain on its own. So I designed and printed an adapter that would let me run the pump that drains the washer from my cordless drill. PLA isn't the strongest material, so I went through like 3 of them draining the washer, but it worked fantastically. Very simple to design and a quick print. Big payoff.

Aside from that, wall mounts for my Nintendo Switch and accessories as well as a wall mount for my NAS solution, a shield for the face of my alarm clock so it didn't shine bright digital-clock LED light in my face all night (but I could move it aside and check the time), mounts for SAD lamps in convenient places. Most of what I print is custom-designed stuff for utilitarian purposes.

I started up Reddits functional print many years ago to serve as a gallery/showcase to inspire others that 3D printing has a lot of useful uses.

I left Reddit with the Exodus, but I believe it still exists, although it's probably bot filled garbage now.

But it had a huge list of useful things.

I have a similar thead here on the fediverse, but the original site (kbin.social) died out and I haven't bothered to get another going.

I printed bushings for the augers we have on the bottoms of a couple grain bins. They've lasted for about 10 years in ABS, and the old ones were ridiculously expensive to replace even though they were just made of maple. Probably run a couple of million bushels of grain through those augers since I replaced them.

I also replace the impellers in a couple of pumps we use to pump river water up to cattle, and the design I cribbed is probably twice as effective as the originals, making it more efficient for the solar panels we use to power them.

I've replaced various implement parts around the farm with other prints, things like parts for our seeder and sprayer.

Some light fixtures using rbgw- including one that has a “secret” party mode. (It’s for my niece and it has a Stary Night, but with unicorns, screen.)

Various shelving, and such.

Probably the most stand out thing, though is a robotic snow sweeper. It’s very bespoke so I won’t be publishing it, but it goes out and clears my driveway whenever it snows. The chassis, wheels and sealed housing were all printed, as well as fairings to reduce snowy build up.

So far, gridfinity and other storage management prints. It's amazing that all the drawer organizers I've bought over the years just kind of mostly worked. Now with gridfinity everything is organized and clean.

A bunch of 10-inch rack minilab stuff.

edit: pic

Earbud Charger Charger. Put your earbuds in the charger and put the charger in the charger charger and the charger charger keeps the charger charged.

In other words, an earbud case holder. The earbud case can charge wirelessly so I put a wireless charge coil behind where the case sits. I put a piece of metal on the back of it so it sticks to a magnet mount in my vehicle but I plan to 3D print part of my dash with this built into it.

I have literally printed hundreds of parts, most of them custom made.

From the top of my head:

• a box to transport extra Framework expansion cards
• custom hooks to attach luminous garlands to a tiled ceiling for my wedding
• custom attachments for various devices and tools
• kitchen and bathroom quality of life improvements
• a structure for my Volca mini-synths
• an ergo mech keyboard
• a 100% self designed F1-inspired sim racing wheel (WIP)
• etc.

I have one of those twelve foot tall skeletons for Halloween and the joints are pretty fragile resin for the weight, luckily they are replaceable and there is a pretty strong DIY community for them and you can download free replacement parts.

Every Halloween I take inventory of what needs replaced, print it, and it’s set for another year.

A piece of plastic broke off from my laptop once. It was supposed to hold one of the two screws fixing the cover of the RAM & drive section and now there was just a larger round hole. I've measured the hole and the screw, designed a replacement in Blender (not identical, I wanted something more solid and reliable) and printed it; took two attempts to get the shape perfectly right. Have had zero issues with it in all these years.

Most useful was probably this holder for two 1/2in PEX pipes. Printed in ABS, it holds cold and hot pipes in parallel, and uses a #8 screw for attachment. All commercially available holders are for a single pipe, and use nails. Hammering nails in tight spaces (and doing so twice) is not particularly convenient for me, thus, this contraption was born.

Other than that, stuff that is so practical it is easily forgettable: wall mount for a garage door opener, Y splitter for an exhause fan, various covers and containers.

Probably most useful is Gridfinity for the desk drawers and multiboard for the wall. Not completely sold on multiboard yet - there are so many pieces and options that I haven’t got my head around it yet.

I printed my credit card wallet which has been ace.

I really want the stagetop table system to be useful, but I struggle with the print times and volume of parts to print and might wait until I have a faster printer.

I had to fix some crap in the kitchen and needed custom brackets to attach lighting under the cabinets in certain spots. It is pretty satisfying to go from a few measurements to, in a few hours, having custom parts that 100% did not exist before and couldn't be found in any store.

PLA+ is an awesome material.

Probably my panel mounts for Anderson PowerPole connectors. I use them just about everywhere that I need a 12V DC power outlet.

I printed a belt holder for my leatherman charge and olight arkfeld. Not the best looking solution but very functional

The single most useful print is just a simple cylinder to repair a broken knob on a nearly brand new kitchen stove. A new knob cost $35 at the time and had a 2 month lead time from the factory, (it was during the covid lock down).

It took longer to turn on my computer and start up my CAD program than it did to design the repair part for the knob. 30 minutes later, I had the sleeve printed and super glued over the broken part and the knob reinstalled on the stove.

That's been 7 years ago, the repaired knob is still there and in use daily. And one more knob got the same treatment. It probably took less than 10 cents of PLA and electricity for both repairs.

I made and printed a dice chandelier. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4860495

4 years running and only the d6 needs reprinting. (It's a hair too low)

Edit: my kid reminds me that I also made an ice cream cone holder for my car cup holder spot, I don't think that's published though, as it needs a bunch of work, but it does a great job bringing ice cream cones home.

A bunch of Skadis custom hooks and holders. Most involved ones were a paper towel roll holder and a magnetic file rack for some Stanley metal files.

I have a second hand little portable vacuum cleaner - we used to call them Dust Busters, not sure if there's a more generic name for them these days. Anyway, because it was second hand, it didn't have any of the attachments. Was able to buy a bunch on eBay that were sort of close, then 3D print an adapter to make them fit.

I printed one of the ukuleles on printables.

I designed my own wall hooks, those are pretty great.

Made a stove knob to replace the broken one on my range.

Made a shelf for my freezer out of petg because the original one didn't fit properly and kept falling.

But the crown for me is a dentist office had this little bite block that people would bite down on when they did a 360 xray. The company wasn't making it anymore so they were cleaning it and reusing it. I bought some of that anti bacterial pla and reverse engineered the bite block. Mine wasn't perfect but it was close enough. Made them like 75 of them.

@Interstellar1 Backpack carrier clips for #bicycle .. something similar to this: thingiverse.com/thing:4922090

Did a little mod to make them fit to D-clips on my backpack and effectively converted it into pannier backpack 😀

I 3d printed a hair comb that's been my daily use comb for like 8 months now.

I've also 3d printed a gauge pod for my car (that I modeled) to hold a trans temp gauge. And since I drive every day that probably tops the list of useful prints.

The Honeycomb Storage Wall and a huge assortment of derivatives.

With the exception of crap for the kids and cake toppers, everything I print is to solve a problem I/we have.

Here are the gridfinity drawers I designed and printed for under my desk. https://www.printables.com/model/1129785-gridfinity-under-desk-drawer-system

I'm about to start printing triple stacks of these to put better drawers into my IKEA KALLAX shelves than the ones IKEA sells.

I make one off fixtures to position parts for fiberglass layups or woodworking and its amazing to be able to get really precise fitups without needing a cnc machine or expensive metal for single use stuff.

Most useful as in something I wouldn't have otherwise is probably some gridfinite thing. SD and usb stick holders maybe.

Most used is probably a plain headphone hook for office. Daily use and storage for years.

Most saved time and money? Jigs and dummy parts at work which have helped avoid more expensive processes and mistakes in more expensive processes.

I printed new treads for my beach cart in TPU.

Portable case for my mavic mini, more compact than the original carrying case, gridfinity organizer for my drawers.. can fit s lot more stuff and super organized, stands, racks for my mechanical puzzle collection, protectors for my FPV drone camera and arms, tons of accessories for FPV controller, fixed a broken camping chair by cloning the plastic feet that joins the rods of one leg. Broken adapter for my vacuum cleaner, broken battery case for my electroacoustic guitar, and ..well the list goes on and on..

Supports for some plastic led strips, to mount them to the wall.

Drops for drones, drone parts.

First thing I ever printed was a spout to replace the elephant trunk on my Rancilio Rocky coffee grinder. It allows me to use the grinder with basically 0 ground retention so it was a huge improvement and allows me to accurately use the grinder for single doses. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:101392

Another thing I made were some spacers to correct alignment on the freezer door of my French door refrigerator. They've been working great for years now and keep the door seal in perfect alignment. I custom made these and they're unlikely to be useful to anyone else.

I also am very fond of some wire organizers I use for managing USB charging cables so they're not a jumbled mess. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5340635

A AAA-battery to AA-adapter. I randomly had 50 of the smaller ones lying around, so it really came in handy.

Can't share a link, but there should be dozens of this kind of model on any site. "Can't", because the model I grabbed was definitely among the worse ones.

Card holders for board games. Normally a thick deck tends to slip around, and the bottom card can be hard to pick up. We now keep a few holders for the standard sizes, and use them if a game needs any. So convenient.

Switch/outlet covers and NEMA boxes.

Not sure it's the most useful in a day to day sense, but was great for a d&day darksun campaign. I have got quite a few grom gloomykidminis, great quality

https://only-games.co/products/mekillot

I've only made and printed a couple things on my own, but I find the outlet cover that goes up against my bed useful

New interior door handle for a john deere 450clc excavator. Red pla, so far, has outlasted the original

I've printed some basic gridfinity bins (the vase mode ones are super quick and sturdy enough for what I'm doing) and baseplates.

I also custom modeled a hook for my headset that would only work for my specific desk.