Sorting and storing LEGO are not new topics on BrickNerd—or to anyone who has gotten tired of digging through giant bins of loose LEGO bricks to find that one missing cheese slope. Everyone has different sized collections, different sorting styles, and different needs. Though I highly recommend checking out the other articles on container options, budget storage, and even using peanut butter jars!
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Zip bags
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Plastic bins
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Silverware dividers
Wasted space between bins
My personal preference for sorting and storing LEGO is a mix of Akro-Mils small parts drawers sitting on top of my workplace with IKEA Alex drawers underneath.
The biggest issue I run into is how best to subdivide the Alex drawers while still keeping things accessible. I’ve used silverware dividers, various premade plastic bins, and just plain old plastic bags. These work… ish. I’ve never been happy with how much wasted space there is with bins that don’t quite fit, or bags that are hard to find and sort pieces into.
3D Printing for Storage
Enter the 3D printer! It is a simple (and magical) machine that turns a line of plastic filament into whatever you can imagine. Now the biggest question. What storage to print? 3D model-sharing sites like Printables have thousands of options for bins and drawers, and that’s before considering modeling your own solutions.
You could spend years designing a unique storage solution, which takes away from all of our valuable building time! Fortunately, others have already put in the time to create these systems!
Gridfinity baseplates
The Power of Gridfinity
What is Gridfinity, and why does it just sound like you mashed together the words grid and infinity? Well, that’s pretty much what it is. A drawer filling grid. Created by the sci-fi monocled Zack Freedman, Gridfinity is an open-source, modular system designed to adapt to any drawer and provide near-infinite flexibility. (I thought it was one of the best April Fools jokes ever when it was announced—until I realized it was actually real!)
I won’t spend much time diving into the details of this, as it would make this article way too long. If you want to know more about the design, watch the original video by Freedman on YouTube.
We will be using Gridfinity here to subdivide the Alex drawers into grids on which any arrangement of bins can sit.
1×1 up to 2×4 bin examples
Gridfinity is based on a 42mm grid, which doesn’t quite line up with the LEGO grid. It translates to about a 5×5 stud space per grid unit. So far, I haven’t found this to be an issue; in fact, I prefer a bit of wiggle room, since it makes it easier to grab parts from the bins.
These bins can be printed in any size and shape that works best for your system, so I whipped up some different sizes in only a few short hours.
Gridfinity in Action
Eager to get them in action, I started converting my Alex drawers. Below, you will see my old storage method on the left compared to the efficiency of a fully printed solution on the right. (Yes, those are the same number of pieces!)
Old Method
Printed Solution
Look how much more compact Gridfinity is! This can also be rearranged however you want, and bins can be swapped around as a collection grows.
Cheese Slopes
1×1 & 1×2 Plates
The other thing this system enables is full-element sorting that can grow with your collection. Splitting a part by color is easy with smaller bins. A single bin can be removed for easy access, unlike tackle boxes, which require the entire box of all colors to be grabbed each time a single color is needed.
Alex Drawer Extension
You might have noticed from the old and new photos that the drawer pulls out much further in the new compared with the old. If you’ve used Alex drawers before, you will understand this pain. Due to safety concerns about tipping, IKEA limits the drawer’s range to mitigate the risk of tipping with too much weight.
Upper: ORIGINAL Extension; Lower: Full EXTENSION
Now I’m all for safety, but I’m also for maximizing the space and not leaving the back three Gridfinity rows inaccessible. In this case, I’ll use a little extra caution to gain a lot more storage. There are a lot of solutions to this floating around the internet, ranging from low-effort to high-effort.
Personally, I like two specific options for extending the drawers, and have tried both to good effect. One is more robust but requires much more time and access to a router. The other is a simple 3D printed solution that takes no time at all to install, but requires the user to keep the drawer from pulling out too far.
The printed solution prevents the rails from falling out of the slots. It replaces the screw that usually secures the drawer to the rail. You can pull the drawer completely out, but be careful not to extend it too far each time you access the back of the drawer.
Printed Solution
Routed Solution
The other solution uses a router to create a slot that utilizes the original screw to secure the rails to the drawer and allow the drawers to extend as far as you want. I prefer using the routed drawers, but the time and equipment overhead might just be a dealbreaker. I am still deciding whether it’s worth the effort to route out two slots per drawer, or if it’s better to just be a little more careful each time I reach for the back.
Creating the Bases and Bins
Now that we have the drawers modified, it is time to start printing the containers. Gridfinity is an open standard, which means that anything you find saying it’s compatible with Gridfinity will (theoretically) work together. But how do we go from a standard file to a 3D model we can print?
There are a few options, but my personal favorite is a customizable solution for a CAD (computer-aided modeling) application called OpenSCAD, which is a script-based CAD program. Fortunately, you need no CAD or scripting skills to use this as GitHub user ostat created Gridfinity Extended OpenSCAD. Downloading both OpenSCAD and the Gridfinity Extended project opens a dashboard that lets you endlessly customize and create Gridfinity models.
There are so many options for label spots, stackable notches, and non-rectangular shapes that you can really create anything you need. I will be sticking to the simple bins as they use very little material, which saves me money on filament.
This customizability is especially important with the baseplates, as the drawers I’m filling are not exact multiples of 42mm (the grid size used). We have to add padding to the edges of some baseplates to ensure they fit without sliding. I’ve found the Ikea drawers to be fairly inconsistent, and as such, have preferred to measure my own drawers rather than use the measurements I’ve found online.
The nicest part of generating your own bins is being able to make them as tall as possible while still allowing the drawer to close. This maximizes the number of elements each drawer can hold.
Caveats and Considerations
While 3D printing might seem like a fantastic solution that perfectly adapts to your collection’s storage needs, it does have a few drawbacks.
The first and most obvious caveat is that this process requires a 3D printer. This can be a significant investment, depending on the printer used. Unless you already have one or plan on using one for many other projects (not printing LEGO pieces, though—you would never do that!), I would not recommend getting one solely to create Gridfinity storage for your LEGO collection. But if you are ready to start your 3D printing journey, where should you begin?
Bamboo Labs gets a lot of attention online, but I would caution against them. For the same reasons I don’t buy off-brand LEGO, I avoid Bamboo and other Chinese printer companies. Personally, I would like my money to support innovation and high-quality. For me, that is Prusa 3D printers. I’ve been using Prusa machines for many years now with stellar results! My personal recommendation at this time is the Prusa Core One. It’s a solid, reliable machine that will have a long life of support and innovation by Prusa.
25 1×1 bins on my Prusa Core One printer
The second caveat is the amount of filament used and the associated cost. Using my preferred filament, Jesse PETG or PLA, the cost comes to around $20 USD per kilo of filament. The Ikea NOJIG bins I was using cost at most $1 for the largest bin. Those hold about the same amount of LEGO as a 3×4 Gridfinity bin, which costs me about $2 in plastic to print using my current settings. This is by no means the cheapest solution. But if I need another 3×4 bin, I can print one in two hours. Or I can print 25 1×1 bins in about five hours. For me, the quick turnaround and flexibility outweigh the higher costs.
3D printed storage is also a time-consuming project, even with the Gridfinity open standard. I’ve been printing for about two weeks as I convert my storage solution, and I still have quite a bit left to do! But once the initial burst of printing is complete, additions over time will hopefully be quick and easy. These bins will also never be out of stock or subject to delays or discontinuation because I can keep making them myself.
Printing Into Infinity
We all have very different needs when it comes to storage solutions, and this 3D printed style won’t work for everyone. If this seems like a fit for your needs, I highly recommend starting your journey down the Gridfinity rabbit hole.
As for me, this project is still ongoing. I am taking this opportunity to completely redo my sorting methods, which is a large undertaking in and of itself. I’ve got plans to maximize the efficiency of part access while still keeping the footprint fairly small. I also have ideas for dealing with the parts we end up with an excess of (sometimes from an unfinished project or just that one time at the Pick-A-Brick wall when we got a bit too excited about how many transparent yellow minifig heads we could fit in a single cup or box…).
So stick around for another article in the future about how this approach to 3D-printed LEGO storage evolves, including organization, dealing with overflow, and the continuation of my adventures with modifying drawyers!
How do you sort your collection? Would you ever consider using a 3D printer to make your storage modular? Let us know in the comments!
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