I was on a mission to organize my workbench, and needed a place for my electric screwdriver. I considered modelling a holster for Gridfinity, but ultimately decided on strapping it to the side of my desk to maximize my workspace and keep it in easy reach.
This attaches to the desk with 3M poster strips for a nice clean look and more importantly, no permanent alteratrions to the desk. It’s plenty strong, I’ve had it here for nearly a month now with frequent use and it hasn’t budged. The pads provide shock absorption which absorbs most of the impact of daily use.
Files Provided
Includes the STL and the Fusion360 Source File. This file is not Parametric, but could be made so by redoing the dimensions throughout the timeline. I likely didn’t build this in the most efficient way possible either, it was one of my first Fusion projects!
How to Print
Print this upright (tab up). My settings were:
- Supports: On
- Height: 0.28mm (Extra draft but more walls)
- Walls: 4-6 (ring should be solid)
- Infill: Gryroid, 20% (mine had barely any infill left)
- Material: PLA, PETG, anything you want that’s reasonably strong.
The support column should be easy to remove, and any small imperfections on these surfaces won’t matter. They’ll be pressed against the desk and the foam in the stickies will deal with any small bumps to level things out.
How to Mount
Mount this with two pieces of 3M poster strips. One full poster strip on the left, and a half piece for under the top.
Make sure you put some sticky tape under the top tab too!
This is key to keeping this thing on your desk! If you only mount the side tab, this will be vulnerable to rotating (peeling away) from the desk due to the torque that is introduced when you drop the screwdriver in here. The fact that the foam pads allow movement makes this worse – that little bit of leeway for movement on a rotational axis, even if < 1mm, means that any rotational force can move pretty freely into this object, but once that leeway runs out, now you have something literally tearing at the glue every time you drop the driver in here.
So, the top sticky pad under the top counteracts the torque (rotational force) by using the strongest possible orientation of the sticky pads: the shear direction. The hardest way to move/remove the pads is to slide them across a surface, e.g. apply a shear force.
The rotational forces that act on the holster will be transferred to this tab, which then has that awesome shear strength to counteract the more considerable torque. Of course – it’s not invincible mind you. Reasonable care is expected.