Desk Side File Storage

Problem to Address

My desk is quite messy, mainly because I have so many papers and books with no other convenient place to store them. Its gotten so bad that I have basically no place to do work, and I routinely end up knocking my phone into the trash.

Research

There are many storage options designed to hold a large amount of loose papers, but the vast majority of them require a significant horizontal desk space, and as I am trying to clear some desk space that seems to defeat the entire point. The few vertical storage options I encountered were either clearly not intended to store papers (they had many small soft pockets), or would not attack to my desk in a non-destructive way. Both options were also quite expensive. I decided to make a folder like design that would clamp to the side of my desk for easy access.

Aesthetic Inspiration

I decided to go with a minimalist Sci Fi style, primarily because I felt it would work well with the curved mono-chromatic parts we could produce with the 3D printers.

Sketches

Redesign (Less is More)

After becoming more familiar with the limitations of 3D printer I decided my original design needed a major overhaul. I decided to only 3D print the clamps, with the rest being made from a scrap acrylic rod and aluminium wire. The actual paper holding would be done by filing cabinet folders which hang off of the wire. 3D printing is best for small complex objects, which was just clamps in my original design, so I decided to save a lot of time by only using 3D printing for that which it is best suited.

Process and Reflection

Once I had decided on a design the 3D modeling and printing went smoothly. The only issues I ran into was some difficulty removing my printed part from the build plate, and the holes in the parts being a tiny bit smaller then expected, but both issued were resolved with a bit of elbow grease and the right tools (a scraper for the first one and sand paper for the second). Looking back I probably should have designed a larger margin of error for the hole diameter to save me some time sanding, but luckily it was a easily solvable problem. In general the project was a success, and I was quite lucky to have as few issues as I had.