Customisable Desk Organiser/Trays

This is a customisable organiser for everyday items like a phone, headphones, keys, wallet, letters, tablet etc.

I designed this for the the “Catch All Trays” contest as this seemed like a nice practical project.

Problem with coming up with an even somewhat universal tray design is that it is difficult to design one that suits everyone. With all the different phone sizes, headphones, wallets, keys and other items it is not easy to have a single design. 

Also what happens if you get new headphones or a phone? Print the entire tray again? This design will only require you to replace a single element if needed and keep rest of it untouched.

The design is inspired by general pegboard wall storage solutions as well as the hugely popular Honeycomb Storage Wall which I am a big fan of.

Currently there are not too many different attachments. I have however, included parametric models, so it is easy to resize phone, headphone holders and trays. So it is very easy to customise it for your specific items/requirements.

My initial setup is also not very space efficient as there is fair bit of empty space. This leaves space for future additions when needed.

A half sized assembly would also work very well if space is at a premium. 

Files

STL:

I've included stl files of each part - use these to print parts that you do not need to change, like the meshes and stands. 

Parametric models:

Chances are that you do not have the same phone, case, headphones and wallet that I have. To help with this I have included some of the key Fusion 360 files so that you can easily adjust the component sizes by just editing the parameters in Fusion 360.

STEP:

Step files of all parts are also included for easier editing.

Additional parts

You will need some M4 screws - mostly 8mm long and some 16mm ones. 

(There is currently no clever click in place assembly - for now it is all done by just using screws.)

Print details

Printer used - Prusa i3 MK3S+

Material - PLA and PETG work well. For improved aesthetics, PA-CF filament could work really well.

Nozzle size - 0.4 or 0.6mm both work well. I printed the side meshes with 0.8mm nozzle and it ended up looking a bit rough.

Layer thickness - 0.2mm or less is best for aesthetics, but functionally it doesnt really matter.

Supports - no support are required

Speed - keep it on the low side if you want the part to look nice - I used 40-60mm/s.

Infill - 20% is plenty

Perimeters - I recommend minimum 3 wall perimeters

Printing Meshes

When printing the triangle meshes I found that the top surface finish was not very good - there were some gaps and rough surfaces. 

There are 2 ways to improve this:

1. If your first layer prints well, then use this as the visible surface
2. Enable Ironing in the settings to smooth out the top surface. I used 20% flow and 0.2mm spacing - this worked OK for me, but was not quite perfect. If you have not used Ironing before, then its worth trialling ironing separately first to get the settings dialled in.

Assembly

You can scale the organiser as you require by printing more or less meshes and stands.

Base

Components for standard assembly

To print:

• Stand X2
• Main Mesh X2
• Locking Clip X2
• Linking Plates - Front V1-3 X1 each
• Linking Plates - Rear V1-3 X1 each

Extra parts:

M4 8mm screws X14 

Step 1

Firstly connect the meshes together by using the locking plates. I've used 3 of these with plenty of screws to ensure a solid connection and reduce any flexing. The exact position of these is not critical, but have one somewhere at the top and another at the bottom. You will also likely have to move these around when trying to position other components.

Step 2

Install the Stands in the positions shown below. Use the locking clips and 16mm M4 screws to fix the stands in place.

Step 3

To scale the the phone holder, headphone holder or the trays download the Fusion 360 files and open them in fusion.

Under Modify menu select “Change Parameters”

In the parameter menu you can adjust the overall dimensions as well as radiuses of some key elements.

I did test the models to some extent but it is possible to break them. However, they should work fine for most cases.

For larger trays, it may be necessary to change the number of fixing points. You can do this by editing the “NumofFixPoints” parameter.

This will adjust the number of fixing points as shown below.

The fixing points are generated at a set interval. So for the above example you may only want 3 fixing points, but want to specify which of the 5 you actually want. For this you can edit the rectangular pattern.

Enable “Suppression” and select which repeats you want to keep.

Once you are happy with the sizes export the parts as stl or 3mf files and print them as usual.

Step 4

In an attempt to add a bit of flare to the design I've included some Decorative Pattern files. These are there purely just to make the whole thing look a bit better and more colourful.

Once you have decided which trays and other holders you want to use you can add these patterns to make the whole thing look a bit more colourful.

Overall I used 3 different colours for my print - black, dark grey and prusa orange.

These can go wherever you have a bit of extra empty space.

Step 5

Installing all the holders and trays is very straight forward. 

You will need:

Single Clamping Plates

8mm M4 screws

The exact number will depend on how many things you will be installing.

Use the clamping plates and screws to fix all the components in place from the back of the mesh.

Step 6

There are also additional components that attach to the sides of the organiser.

For the left hand side there is a 2 part holder for either letters or a tablet. 

On the right hand side there is a storage box for miscellaneous things. 

Both of these bolt onto the stands and require 3X 16mm M4 screws.