8 Simple, Practical 3D Printer Projects

Generally the first thing that people try printing on their new 3D printer are cool toys like Yoda heads, Portal Companion Cubes, and the Starship Enterprise. Yet 3D printers, even those limited to printing with plastics like acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA), can print all sorts of practical items. I scoured MakerBot's Thingiverse archive of 3D printing files and selected a number of useful yet interesting projects. We offer here some 3D printer projects of objects that will be more than just cool eye candy.

The Thingiverse is an archive of 3D printing projects and files, most of them uploaded by their makers for public use under a Creative Commons license. The archive contains thousands of projects, in categories including 3D Printing, Art, Gadgets, Tools, Household, Fashion, Hobby, Learning, Models, and Toys & Games. Other similar archives exist, but the Thingiverse is the best known.

Many of the items I selected are things that I might not think to shop for, but are useful nonetheless. The acid test is actually printing them out, and we used a MakerBot Replicator 2X to do so. I discarded all those that were duds, leaving the projects you see here. Even among the successful ones, not all of them printed perfectly; if there were problems in printing or with the finished product, I've noted them in the captions.

In choosing the projects featured here, I've stuck to relatively simple objects, with no more than three parts. I avoided cups and other food-related projects because they can't be guaranteed as food-safe, though in many cases they probably are. PLA plastic is food safe, though other plastics and potentially toxic materials may have been through the extruder, and the dye that colors the plastic isn't necessarily safe.

These are but a tiny selection of the practical 3D printing projects available on the Thingiverse. Let us know what other awesome things you want to see printed in 3D in the comments below.

If You Must Have Yoda Heads...
A final word on Yoda heads. At PC Labs, we've printed our share—mind you, for testing purposes. Seriously. How well a 3D printer does in rendering Yoda's wrinkly contours is one of our tests of resolution and print quality. Even for more typical users, there are some utilitarian Yoda-related 3D printing projects out there. If you can't live without a Yoda cookie cutter, cufflinks, shot glass, or iPhone case, however, you'll have to search the Thingiverse for them yourself.

Ben Heck's Chip Clip

Got a half-eaten bag of munchies that you want to keep fresh? This chip clip will do the job. Never eat a stale chip again.

Tweezers

If you're like me, you can never find that pair of tweezers when you need them. Never fear, you can 3D-print your own. These tweezers have a very comfortable flex. When newly printed, the gripping surfaces were a bit rough; you can sand them or (as I did) run a scissor or knife blade along each surface a few times. Their main flaw is a tendency for the surfaces to shift vertically relative to each other if you aren't careful, so be gentle in gripping objects with these tweezers.

Hair Comb

The Thingiverse has plenty of combs, 42 items so tagged altogether. The one we chose is an oldie but goodie. Uploaded by its creator, repraprook, in 2009, this hair comb was featured as a Thingiverse Instant Classic on MakerBot's blog two years later. It's simple, unadorned, and small, but it prints out smoothly—unlike some other combs I tried—and works like a dream.

iPhone 5/5S Case

A large number of mobile phone cases have cropped up on the Thingiverse for pretty much all popular models. Unsurprisingly, there were numerous iPhone 5 and 5S cases, many incorporating some decorative design. We printed a fairly generic iPhone 5/5S case after one with a fancy motif got misprinted. If you're an advanced user, you might want to try your hand at gussying up this or some other Thingiverse object using MakerBot's Customizer app.

Stackable Square Tray

The stackable square tray is a 4-by-4-inch tray split into four 2-by-2-inch compartments. Sure enough, it's stackable. Never let those small parts get away from you again.

Desktop Organizer

The desktop organizer is the largest object we printed out, and an instant favorite. I had to scale it down to 90% of its original size to get it to print on the Replicator 2X, but even so, it's more than large enough to serve as a quite credible organizer. We printed it with ABS, and as is sometimes is the case with printing large objects with that plastic, even with the Replicator's heated print bed, one of the back corners curled upward. It still looks and works fine, but if you have a choice, you might want to print this one in PLA.

Nintendo 3DS Game Card Box

If you're a Nintendo DS user, you can't have too many game card holders. This game card box has 11 slots to hold cards in the Nintendo DS/DSi/3DS families.

Mini GoPro Stand

GoPro Hero cameras are great for capturing extreme sports, but don't always do well for more sedate, stationary filming. Because of their ultra-wide field of view, you can't shoot with one resting on many surfaces, unless it's pointed straight up. The Mini GoPro Stand lets you tilt the camera to your desired angle. It prints in three parts: two legs and the mount. Its main drawback is that the legs are not fastened to the mount, so one can become detached when you're trying to set the stand in place. They're easy enough to reattach, though, and as long as you don't jostle the GoPro, you should be okay.

Light Switch Cover

No need to go to the hardware store—you can print out your own light switch cover.

Filament Holder

Need a holder for that filament spool? You can always print one out.

About Our Expert

Tony Hoffman

Senior Writer, Hardware

Since 2004, I have worked on PCMag’s hardware team, covering at various times printers, scanners, projectors, storage, and monitors. I currently focus my efforts on 3D printers, pro and productivity displays, and drives and SSDs of all sorts.

Over the years, I have reviewed smart telescopes, iPad and iPhone science apps, plus the occasional camera, laptop, keyboard, and mouse. I've also written a host of articles about astronomy, space science, travel photography, and astrophotography for PCMag and its past and present sibling publications (among them, Mashable and ExtremeTech), as well as for the former PCMag Digital Edition.

The Technology I Use

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T14 laptop that's my work daily driver, an HP Pavilion Aero 13 as my primary personal laptop, and an Asus ProArt P16 for detailed photo work. (I also have an older Dell XPS 13, which now stays at home full-time.) For storage testing, I rely on our three custom-built Windows testbeds in PC Labs, as well as a 2024 MacBook Pro.

My primary home monitor is a BenQ EX2780Q, a gaming monitor with a great sound system and excellent image quality. I use that panel for writing, watching videos, and working with photos. I also have an HP 27 Curved Display—one of the first general-purpose curved monitors—which I have paired with an Acer Aspire desktop computer. My multifunction printer is an Epson Expression Premium XP-7100 Small-in-One. I also own an Epson Perfection V39 flatbed scanner, which I use for photos and short documents, and a Canon Selphy CP1300 small-format photo printer for turning out snapshots.

My first cell phone, in 2006, was a Motorola Razr; since then, it’s been all iPhones—I currently have an iPhone 15 Pro. I use my iPhone a lot for casual photography, though I also use a Sony DSC-RX100 VII and a Canon G5 X Mark II for everyday shooting. For much of my travel photography and astrophotography, I use either a Sony A7r II or A7 III, paired with a variety of lenses ranging from a Sony 14mm f/1.8 prime to a Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS zoom lens. I also pair the A7r with a RedCat 51 for deep-sky star shooting. For astrophotography, I also use the Seestar S30 and S50 and the Unistellar Odyssey smart telescopes, which are essentially astronomical cameras controlled through one’s mobile device.

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