Gridfinity in the Machine Shop: 3D Printed Metrology Toolbox Organization

[@kcdakrt]

Of course we're going to want an in depth video on the modeling aspect of this project. At this point it's safe to say that any project of yours that involves modeling will garner attention from us. Keep up the fantastic work James.

[@norseengineer]

I stalled out on my gridfinity project because I didn't know how to easily create custom carriers

[@seo5581]

Yes

[@Lyonfeather]

Yeah, what he said - exactly.

[@JBLewis]

I came to the comments to say the same thing, especially the micrometer trays! I'm interested in simply seeing how you worked out the step-ups for the different micrometers.

[@mountiealpha]

+1 interested in modeling how-to!

[@jeffkling7589]

I love to see CAD content. I like different approaches folks take.

[@ender-gaming]

Agreed, I sometimes struggle with copying certain geometry (Injection Molded parts with drafts being one of them) and seeing how someone else goes about it would certainly being enlightening for me.

[@barryomahony4983]

Same here.

[@rosslamb6464]

I would love to see CAD approach also. Your previous CAD videos have been immensely helpful. Thank you.

[@DanaFarmer]

me as well

[@inniyewtesfaw2003]

​@ender-gaming if you aren't already aware, draft is available as a sub-setting under extrude, you can enter an angle in degrees and it will draft the extrusion instead of extruding perpendicular to the sketch profile(in fusion and solidworks)

[@samueldeveault2263]

I would absolutely love a video explaining the design process AND if you can print on the plastic with the fiber laser

[@SAdeimosSA]

He did a video on laser marking a 3d print earlier, it's the grinder control box video

[@chiparooo]

Beautiful Gridfinity implementation! Zack would be proud of you. Looks like you had fun with this project. Thanks for sharing!

[@benzam6218]

I'd definitely like to see your technique in CAD. This has been on my "To Do" list since I watched Phil Vandelay's recent video on this. Between his video and yours, it's going to save me hours of thinking when I go to do mine. Much appreciated.

[@TheTsunamijuan]

In my experience when designing fits for tool holding. I offset by 2-3mm, (and some draft angle) than I leave some areas for single sided medium density foam pads. That I will stick in in a few spots. This adds some holding and vibration protection for sensitive stuff, and just the right amount of pressure to still be able to retrieve said item. I routinely move my toolboxes around my shop area. Due to a rather limited around of room. Plus said shop was originally a barn.. so the concrete floor has more character and issues than letting a toddler finger paint with drywall compound.

[@Clough42]

Good idea.

[@diyemc7206]

​@@Clough42you don't need special support materials. PLA and PetG are a great match. Just make sure it's not some blended stuff. If you have bigger surfaces don't make solid interfaces... I use 0.15mm gaps. That way you don't get tiny gaps or tiny "squishes" from not perfectly tuned flow rates that could allow the next layer to grab on. The resulting surfaces are very close to perfect.

[@ObservationofLimits]

Yea just having it in bare plastic would drive me nuts. That plastic scratchy noise all the time would drive me crazy

[@Markevans36301]

For anyone who hasn't already discovered it, there is a gridfinity plug in for Fusion 360 that will do simple trays and boxes all in the plug in and for the more complex things like whats here, you can have to plug in do a solid that you can now do Boolean mods to and save a lot of time.

[@travistucker7317]

That's dope. Powerful tool.

[@HelloNotMe9999]

Could you provide a link? That’s a mighty useful tool.

[@Markevans36301]

@@HelloNotMe9999 it is in the Fusion 360 store so just open the store from within F360 and then search for gridfinity. Despite being in the store,it is completely free.

[@m3chanist]

@@HelloNotMe9999 Utlitities->Addins->Fusion Apps store->GridfinityGenerator

[@goldmanjoe]

Stacking the grids for bulk printing is brilliant!

[@justin128584]

Agreed. It would be awesome if you released that model as well. Ideally for the Bambu lab X1 bed size

[@chrislambe400]

@@justin128584 No need. It prints just fine as a stack unmodified. Printables - Gridfinity Stack Printing Baseplate

[@jdl3408]

@@chrislambe400that is not the model he used. It is not symmetrical in Z

[@highflyer2488]

+1 for a video walkthrough of the design process

[@Blackcloud_Garage]

Awesome content. My suggestion would be to make the top layer a contrasting color so it’s easier to see if a tool is missing. It’s what we do with foam cut outs in aviation toolbox.

[@vegardjohannessen2153]

I’m really eager to see an in-depth CAD video on this topic. I’ve watched every Fusion 360 video you’ve released, and thanks to you, I now know how to use AutoCAD. You’re an amazing teacher, and I love watching your videos!

[@sundaynobody]

I just did a full gridfinity set up in my studio! There is nothing compared to the sweet satisfaction of organized tools and hardware. Great work!

[@Chromevulcan]

I love the symmetry with the mics, mirroring each other. That's one of the "attention to detail" things that I love about you're work.

[@phrozenwun]

Bro goes full OCD organizer mode then claims complete support cleanup is not necessary... press X to doubt 😀

[@Clough42]

Did you doubt when I said it was a reason to buy more tools?

[@ickipoo]

@@Clough42 We know what will happen - you will buy the new tools, make trays for them, then spend the afternoon removing the support material from the grid before stashing the new acquisitions... ;-)

[@bobweiram6321]

3D printing the angle support just to laser engrave some measly numbers and a Shars logo seriously warrants an intervention.

[@corndog6700]

Cool stuff but........What happens when the big earthquake comes, and that surface plate flops off on your foot? Think of the children that will be traumatized when they see the goo that gets squeezed out.

[@frikkied2638]

Sounds like someone who hasn’t struggled with removing stubborn support material 😂

[@cuocoli]

Great video! To improve the snugness and clearance ratio when designing parts like these, I model them with a snug fit, then add a draft to the extrusion. This really helps with tool insertion and removal while keeping everything rattle-free.

[@BowWowPewPewCQ]

Stacking the grids with a layer of support filament is brilliant. I now know how I'm going to use it now. I need to come up with multiple layers in deep drawers ie file cabinet. I'm leaning towards bi-passing sliding using tracks on a side plate. I would love to see what others have done.

[@basbastian2998]

Thanks this is exactly why I came here. For the lessons learned while designing your own boxes. You saved me from so much mistakes. Thanks for that. Now it is time to make new mistakes on my own.

[@Pyrichia]

You can get both a highly accurate and tight fit on items /and/ easy removal by using draft angles. Only the very bottom of the holder has to have the accurate fit, while the rest of the depth provides a steeply sloped guide into it. Injection molding and sand casting use draft all the time. Since the part ultimately has zero clearance against the mold, parallel walls would have high friction when sliding out, making separation difficult. Drafting those walls provides immediate and increasing clearance as the part is removed, greatly reducing separation forces. The same principle can make your holder both easy to put items in, but satisfyingly tight and rattle-free when seated.

[@loccey9]

Id love to see an in depth modeling course for these models and how to work around these complex parts. And I simply love your CAD videos anyways, can learn a lot from them. Keep it up!

[@colinofay7237]

At the start of the video, was thinking, just put support material between and print loads at once And yeuuup, thats what you did, great job.

[@WatchWesWork]

It's well executed, no doubt about that. Not sure I could handle it. It's a slippery slope to some soulless Pierson Workholding hellscape of shadowboards and process sheets tamping down all creative thought.

[@AntiVaganza]

Haha, this is the funniest thing I have read in a while:). I do watch his videos but I always had this sense of "his" system being a personal hell for me. I am sure it's good for efficiency and that he would argue it frees up resources to be more creative, but not so sure. Not for my type of personality. That said, I could do with some more organization for sure. But I don't want a laminated piece of paper on the toilet door telling me what to do. (I think he mentioned lately that he had the 397 Wastes Of Lean posters everywhere - including the bathrooms). (I am just an amateur, have never worked in a machine shop)

[@cskovach]

If you don't have to look for tools then you can spend more time actually doing things. First order access (not stacking everything on top of each other) also protects tools and makes it easier to find everything. This is why super deep shelves are also a very poor way to store stuff - you have to remove everything in the front to access stuff in the back. That being said I get what you're saying. Turning everything into something controlled by a process, procedure, or Kanban card takes some of the life out of it. But like Pierson himself says, take what works for you and throw the rest away. Find whatever level of organization makes you the most efficient and stop there because that is all the more complicated the system needs to be.

[@AntiVaganza]

@@cskovach I am all for first order access, but I don't need a motivation poster in front of me in the men's room;). So, yeah, like always, the good path is likely somewhere in the middle.

[@disc0p]

Saw all the models get posted this morning and was stoked to see it was you!

[@StamD65]

Spot on topic,great ideas. I think the topic You touched at the end,how to design or reverse engineer the shapes of the tools would be incredibly interesting. Keep on doing such a high quality content, Best regards...

[@mjodr]

Incredible design process on your own custom trays. Things I would never even think of.

[@RaginBajin]

Thanks for putting everything up on Printables and making it available.. Could you describe a bit more about how you did the stacking or put it up on Printables as well? It was hard to capture how you did it especially when you changed the shape of the base plate.

[@MinerMike24]

From my understanding he duplicated the model in his CAD software and placed them 0.2mm apart. Then enabled supports in the slicer which filled in the gaps, the raw model wouldn't have any supports otherwise. How he sliced the different materials for supports, I can't be sure, my printer only has one nozzle so I'm not familiar with those settings ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@scotta316]

Thank you for explaining the what and why of Gridfinity. I never understood the big deal about organizing my stuff into a 42mm grid (although I'm convinced that Zack Freedman is a certifiable genius). Your explanations have given me the motivation to try it out finally.

[@KaiMirra]

Im a mechanical inspector/CMM programmer for a semiconductor etch system manufacturer and i just wanted to say how beautiful this is 👍.

[@NochSoEinKaddiFan]

The plate stacking is absolute GENIUS! We know it from resin printers, but going that route for FDM is really nifty!

[@turnswood]

Thanks for this video. I am not a machinist but since I've watched some of your Fusion 360 designs before, I wanted to see this one. I have organized my desk drawers and my wife's silverware drawer, but that's about it. I did find the Fusion add-in for Gridfinity bases and bins and that helped a lot. I don't even save designs any longer as they are easier to just create, print, and move on the the next one. I only have a Bambu X1 and the biggest base I can print is 5 x 5. I can print some bins up to 5 x 6, but I liked your idea of splitting longer trays for longer objects. I just tried it and it's easy to use the split body command and find the 42mm points to split on. Thanks again. Irv in Florida.

[@964cuplove]

Never heard of gridfinity before, amazing intro and design thoughts !! Thx a lot !!

[@applescotty]

Add me to the list of people who would love an in depth video about how you design the holders. Thanks for sharing these tips. I've designed a few gridfinity holders for my tools, although I've found trays also very useful, sometimes until I get around to designing a custom holder, other times finding that they work well enough. I actually took notes from this video of things to keep in mind when I design my next holders. Thanks!

[@soggymarshmallow]

Very cool to see Alexandre's idea gaining such widespread reception.

[@gridfi]

This has to be one of the best and most practical Gridfinity implementations yet. Great work!

[@Serenityindailylife]

I built a gridfinity stack for the firearms i take in for repair. I have 25 different forms and they work great. They work great and theres no damage.

[@Festivejelly]

Gridfinity is bloody great. Having your shop organised is so satisfying. I use Gridfinity so storing various bolts I use in the products I make.

[@gfixler]

This is the highest level of shop work; spending all of your time building things to store and display the things in your shop. I know that journey all too well. I spent many years upgrading my shop, and even used it a few times to make something for myself or others.

[@jburkelong]

I am in the middle of making gridfinity trays for my lathe and mill tools. I'm not an expert in CAD and have been using TinkerCAD to model my tools. Its basic, but it does what I need and its easy. Once I have the models, I turn them into "holes" and group with solid trays, which I export for my slicer. So far its working really well.

[@jjsjeffjjsjeff]

Appreciate the base grid design. These make more sense than the minimal ones I was already printing. Hot glue seems to work fine for attaching these to my toolbox drawer.

[@srmofoable]

I've been meaning to start organizing some boxes with gridfinity but have been putting it off. Glad i waited, it never occurred to me to stack the grids.

[@aaro_n]

Love gridfinity. I'm sure this will inspire me to do even more

[@christinewhybrow8813]

Ah James, I just LOVE your executive footwear! Also, quite jealous of your metrology gear.

[@ZPraterOne]

Man, this level of organization and design really scratches an itch for me that I didn't know I had.

[@jamalhussain9162]

in-depth video will be extremely helpful

[@moth.monster]

I'm not HUGE on gridfinity but i do appreciate how many different things people have made for it. I have a few bins for it.

[@robindeputy]

I also would like to see your CAD process on this. I always learn new things when you do a video like that. Your storage solutions are definitely inspiring to me.

[@MrDB42]

Thanks a lot James. I've been thinking about doing this myself ever since Zack released gridfinity. Seeing you do it; I've finally started doing my metrology drawer in gridfinity holders. One thing that has surprised me is how much filament each tool takes. Yikes!!!

[@Hossimo]

Stacking the grids, such a good idea. I live by the gridfinity fuaion 360 plugin. I used to draw them myself but kind of no point with the plugin.

[@Clough42]

I learn so much from the comments.

[@pmcquay1]

+1 for the plugin! Theres also at least several openscad gridfinity scripts, if you are fond of tearing your hair out-i mean-programming 😄

[@JulieanGalak]

Yes, please, do an episode on designing for gridfinity. Throughout the video I kept meaning to request that very thing in the comments, it'd be super useful!

[@pipdesignshop]

I love the idea of different colors for “labeling”

[@peterle987]

welcome to the gridfinity workshop organisation club :-))) - done tons of them too (and designed) ! And it saved space to me too, because I also could stack the bins, where rarely used stuff or "spares" for something above (like lathe cutting inserts below the cutting tools).

[@darranedmundson1505]

Thanks James, this is timely. I'm literally waiting (as in FedEx failed to deliver it yesterday) on some spools of Bambu HF PETG to start my own gridinifinity tool chest organization.

[@chrislambe400]

Stack in Orca or Bambu Studio (Assemble or Merge resp.) with a 0.2mm gap and ironing all top surfaces works great. It works great for multiboard and will work great with your modified gridfinity.

[@marsgizmo]

Great practical designs! 👏 And very useful design tips!

[@mikefrachel8292]

I designed a bunch of organizers for all my sockets, ran into a lot of the same lessons about clearance in the trays. Ended up with prety muchthe same njmbres for clearance, too!

[@c10seth]

I just disconvered your channel and this was the first video I watched since I'm looking for toolbox organization. Thank you for putting so much time into sharing and how you approach your storage. I'm very interested in some CAD videos on how you design the trays around fiddly parts.

[@markridgway249]

those peel apart base plates are such a great idea. Now I want a dual-material printer

[@MrTad99]

Industrial Design masterclass James! Thank you! and more fusion content on the gridfinity designs would be great!

[@GirthBrooks775]

PETG is so good for parts printing. I’ve been using elegoo’s high speed PETG and as long as parts cooling is turned low, it’s so strong and smooth.

[@jonathandaigle5518]

At 6:45 when you're talking about printing stacks of gridfinity trays stacked on top each other, separating with a .4mm gap between 2 stacked objects has had good results for me in the past. I have several models I designed that use such a gap for easy breaking and separation. Good work though!

[@pinaz993]

I feel like this is something that @ThisOldTony could appreciate.

[@black99rt]

The pla support material is available in black for extra laziness with cleanup.

[@stevewalston7089]

Realize he will still know it's there ...

[@MarcdeBruijn]

Okay, I’ve just got to say- redesigning the base plate so that they stack is brilliant. 🎉

[@MarkEichin]

Love the workholding "adapter" for the laser labelling - since there's no tool force from the laser, the loose fit of the gridfinity interface is Just Fine, neat!

[@MattWetherill]

Great video! This has just tipped me over the edge into buying my first 3D printer (probably a Bambulab P1S). The Gridfinity system and ability to print custom trays is worth the cost of entry many times over (and then there’s everything else it can do). My workshop and kitchen drawers don’t know what’s coming!… Subscribed 👍🙂

[@sackville_bagginsess]

Putting the logo on for company who’s supported you is very classy

[@karelappelman2681]

This video is pure gold, so much learnings and knowledge being shared here to improve your storage. So much things that seem so obvious when you show it, but I know/see that takes a lot of hours or prototyping, fiddling and trying! I learned a lot from this and will take this with me whenever I design a new drawer with or without gridfinity. Thanks so much for sharing!

[@mnelson10000]

Definitely would like to see your modeling process! thanks for sharing

[@EdwardKilner]

Definitely want the CAD design video!

[@nameofdane]

It would be amazing to see this approach adopted by manufacturers so that every individual buying these products would have a good storage solution right out of the box and we wouldn't have all the additional packaging waste of throwing the original away and then iterating on designs to get something that works. I think it's time the machining trade drops it obsession with the hinged wooden boxes that usually just waste a ton of space and make it hard to quickly access your tools, and often are a joke in terms of quality. I bought a $3k+ set of special accuracy metric 5C collets from Hardinge recently that had a thin bottom brad nailed to the thin walls of a wooden box with the nails under tension rather than shear. The stress of shipping had loosened those nails and I almost dropped the whole set of collets on the floor getting it out of the cardboard box. I already had a different storage idea in mind so it wasn't a huge problem but it just became another of those things in this industry that to me just seems to hang on even though it sucks. Amazing how much innovation there can be on one hand and then how stubbornly people hold onto the 'old school' junk on the other.

[@RexAnothership]

Love the Gridfinity additions. Nice work

[@ΓεώργιοςΠαπαδόπουλος-φ4υ]

Great description! Cad modelling content for gridfinity stuff would be great!

[@alex-b24]

There is a gridfinity add in for fusion that is really helpful for handling basic grid and bin printing. You can obviously then take and modify the basic parts it makes to your needs, but it's nice to be able to just tell it the grid pattern you want and heights and have the main part of the model done.

[@RanouttaTalent]

This is the gridfinity video I have been looking for. Thank you :)

[@Gotchatwice]

Coolest this I have seen keep it going!!

[@steviewonder9209]

Great video, excellent tips- and I love the steel toe sandals.

[@rlockwood2]

one of the most critical components of gridfinity for me is that it's portable; when I decide to change, either to different cabinets, tools, etc.. the whole system just ports over. Huge win over kaizen foam i've used extensively in the past.

[@zoppp621]

If printing with PLA you can use PETG as a support material and if using PETG you can use PLA as support material. It works really well and is alot cheaper than using the specialty support materials.

[@ghillieinthemist593]

Definitely interested in the CAD aspect, as thats probably the more difficult side of using gridfinity, partulaty for tools that dont already have holders designed for them. Also, would be interested if you have any ideas on how to stack the grids if you have a printer without a filament changer, as that seems to be one of the larger price separators among printers. maybe something that you could spray(like mold release) on a finished grid thats enough to be able to split them, but not make the printer unable to print another layer

[@mbarton98]

Really enjoyed the video. I have been printing directly from my two roll filament drier and that has helped me with more consistent prints, especially long prints.

[@mkosmo]

I appreciate the TPU tool holder print. The intrusive thoughts to print all kinds of things in TPU crop up with me all the time lol

[@richardgardiner242]

There is a Gridfinity add-in available for Fusion360 in the Autodesk app store. It seems to work well. I've only just started using Gridfinity so your video is nicely timed.

[@BwsboyPlayGames]

CAD content please! First video of yours I've seen and it was so satisfying to see all of your solutions. Great job!

[@shanewalters7821]

As always, great video and, yes, I would love to see more Fusion 360 stuff especially how to custom create bins to shape / spec.

[@Schraubfreak]

Great work thanks a lot James. Go on, all the best

[@davefieldsend1909]

Definitely would like to see an in depth Fusion design masterclass 👍

[@RobSandstromDesigns]

This is the first time I came across your channel and it was so informative I now need to explore other videos to see if you share this type of knowledge and expertise in your other videos - it is something I really appreciate it when I come across it. Too many people try to make their videos more entertaining than informative. Impressive design on micrometers. Will explore your channel to see if you share Fusion 360 design techniques that allow you to do this type of design work. I would love top see your insights on how to reverse engineer for CAD.

[@nyccnc]

Nice job! Looks great and would love to see more on the CAD!

[@mykl1673]

now this is the toolbox organization video ive been looking for

[@abc-bm8pl]

13:30 I hope SHARS sees this and does exactly the same in production.

[@pitot1988]

SHARS will start contracting @Clough42 to do it for them lol

[@whatsup3d]

I also love the HF PETG, printed a 6 bay NAS case with it, came out great.

[@TheZahnputz]

i love the savety flip flops in the mashine shop :D

[@mikesmathers5752]

I would be very interested in seeing how you go about measuring and designing a pocket to hold a tool in the GridFinity system. I have a feeling that whether it is the GridFinity system or not, it is a transferrable skill to learn. I have never done that, and quite frankly how you went about doing that intrigues me. Thanks for putting this together.

[@Gotchatwice]

Would love to see how you made these. We need a full video of you designing them and solidworks.

[@MichaelLloyd]

I really enjoy your CAD content so if you make it I'll watch it.

[@Grazfather]

Really really good advice. Wish you'd put this out earlier, 'cause I had to learn a lot of this stuff the hard way.

[@alfonsito2652]

The cad work would be so helpful for people who are relatively new to 3d modeling and even experienced designers, not only it can shows us how can we approach the model but also discovering new tips and ways to be better at it.

[@patrickpy]

+1 on creating new gridfinity parts :D

[@Nf6xNet]

I started looking at Gridfinity after you mentioned it in your previous video, and I have my first try at a Gridfinity box printing right now as I watch this. Good timing, and I found this video quite helpful.

[@NOD1776]

I can’t believe I have access to content like this and don’t have to pay anything. Thank you.

[@jr3628]

yes, please go into the design flow on the different holders.