solarbird | Project holder project project update

Which is to say, a project update on the project wherein I am designing a project holding system – or in a broader sense, a storage system for anything which needs first- or second-order-of-retrieval access. Stuff you don’t want on your desk, but which you want to be able to grab quickly and easily.

For me, that’s basically “projects in progress,” which is how the project holder project got its name. I also wanted something that would fit on scarce wall space, in small vertical areas.

Short form: it’s working! This past week alone I cleared three projects off of it, one by successful completion, one by sadly failure, one by deciding I didn’t actually want to do it anymore, but I’d save the parts if I changed my mind about that.

I’ve also been watching for any signs of plastic deformation – some of these items I’m storing have at least a little weight to them – and so far, I’m not seeing it. So I think I engineered it out strong enough even for basic PLA – stronger materials would, of course, do even better.

A week and a half ago, I added an updated wall attachment unit to the project. This one has pre-existing holes for two nails to be inserted at 45°. I’d been trying to use various removable adhesives for a single-mount-point installation, and when all of those failed due to the adhesives peeling off the PLA (at well under their rated strengths, I stress), I thought “let’s try two thin nails at the right angle, and some removable poster tape for stability.”

I was fairly confident this would work and I’m making a note here: huge success. With minimal wall impact, of course, as they are pretty small nails. I haven’t had time yet to design a screw-mount plate, but I think I will.

Also considering making a hook plate. I’m thinking that’d be a nice accessory. You could set a short stack of these up on the way to a front door, maybe beside it, have a hook for keys, have a bin for change and wallet, whatever. It’d be easy to design and should be handy.

It also occurs to me that while I’ve been thinking vertically this whole time, there’s no reason you couldn’t do a horizontal version of this system too. I don’t think that’s as useful in general, but.. it should be fine. The kind of thing maybe you could use in a classroom, particularly with bins. I can see a classroom of little kids picking the bin colour they liked most and storing their crayons or pastels or whatever in them, for art time. Stuff like that.

I’d also like to add some sort of front label space for the bins in particular. I think that’d be a big improvement. I mean, it’s a blank face, it’s not like you can’t put on a sticker or something. But it’s something I’m thinking about, particularly in some sort of removable context.

I think I might be trying to provide hashtags in physical space. #art #electronics #mending lol.