3D Printing on Creativity Hacker

MajorDomo - A Weather Servant

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 08:26:31 +0000

Weather apps are great at telling you the facts: temperature, wind, humidity, chance of rain… But they don’t tell you what you actually need to know in the moment:

“Should I grab the big coat, the light jacket, or nothing at all?”

Sure, I can see out the window whether it’s raining or not, but temperature? That’s hard to nail down at a glance.

Or at least, it used to be hard.

Now I have a servant for that.

Veloci-Straptors

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 13:33:18 +0000

Quick to print, quick to deploy, and quick to remove, they’ll bind your cables and cords so tight that you’ll want to use them everywhere.

Frog and Beetle Phone Case

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 08:09:55 +0000

One of my kids is a biologist studying frogs, and their partner has a passion for insects. So when my frog-nerd got a new phone and couldn’t find a case they liked, I had an idea. Why not create a custom “couples case” just for them?

What followed was quite an adventure to find an efficient and reliable way to print multi-color (and multi-material) veneers with my single-extruder setup, but I’m delighted with the results. And more importantly, so are the kids.

Cable Cog: Taming the Tangles

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 12:19:52 +0000

Whether it’s under my desk or in a storage box, a tangled mass of wall-wart cables always get my blood boiling. So in the interest of delaying my stress-related demise, today I came up with a solution.

FirstBox

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 08:52:45 +0000

As I mentioned in a previous post, I need a system for storing little parts efficiently, and to me that means three things:

all parts are organized into collections of similar items
all parts are stored securely, with minimal risk of spillage or cross-cubby contamination
Each collection is easy to find, easy to put away, and requires zero gameplay (think Jenga or Towers Of Hanoi) to access

Many existing storage solutions tackle numbers 1 and 2, but number 3 seems surprisingly elusive, so I set out to solve it myself. And my motivating requirement? The first box you touch should always be the box you need.

FlipStand - An Adjustable and Retractable Bike Rack

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Sat, 24 May 2025 10:04:17 +0000

I needed a way to organize bikes in a garage or shed when they weren’t being ridden. This is not for winter storage, so I wanted the bikes to remain accessible - just tidier. I also wanted my solution to be adjustable for wheels of different widths, and easy to flip out of the way when they’re not being used.

What I ended up with was simple, cheap (less than $4 per bike!) and extremely easy to build. I didn’t end up using any 3D printed parts, but this feels 3D-adjacent, so I’m including it here anyway.

Tolerant Gate Latch

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 22:54:44 +0000

The side gate into our yard has always been tricky. Due to geometry constraints, the only place to mount the latch pin was on a slightly wobbly post, and that wobble makes it hard for the latch to get a positive grab. So any time somebody goes through that gate, there’s a significant chance it won’t close properly behind them. And since it’s almost exclusively service people using that gate (meter reader, Amazon deliveries, etc.) it can take us a while to notice when it gets left open.

This week, however, it was the dog who noticed. So after spending a stress-filled half hour tracking her down on our busy street, I decided it was time to address the problem.

Custom Reinforced Drywall Anchor

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 21:24:37 +0000

Years ago, I learned (the hard way) that coat hooks attached to drywall using standard cone-shaped anchors function more like a drywall zipper than a garment hanger. But as part my recent home renovation, I wanted a more artistically arranged sequence of floating hooks - too close together to use the studs - so I thought I’d try a more secure anchor. And I wondered if I could 3DP something to do the job.

3D Pranking Story

jeff@smithicus.com (Jefferson Smith) — Sun, 05 May 2024 07:26:52 +0000

My son-in-law is a rabid LA Kings fan. Knowing this, my daughter bought him this nifty memento, which he keeps on the wall of his man cave so he can point to it and crow whenever they score. Very annoying. It was a situation begging for a bit of creative adjustment…