I know it may not be a concern for everyone but if you need to organize a freezer it can be difficult to find containers that are suitable. Firstly, they need to be the right size. And secondly, they need to let air flow in and around them. I hunted high and low and then thought, wait a minute, let’s print some!
I knew the depth of my freezer was too big to print so my approach to this project was 3D printing the ends of the crates and finding a premade material for the sides and bottom. I started by searching Home Depot for a thin material. The cost was definitely a factor as I needed these crates to cost less than the commercial freezer trays that were my fallback. I took a hard look at window blinds and the slats that are used in those. They seemed like the lowest-cost solution (thinking I would cut them out of the blinds and trim them to size). But they all seemed too flimsy.
Eventually, I stumbled across a PVC product in the trim and moulding department sold under the Alexandria brand name with dimensions of 7/32″ x 1-1/2″. This product is perfect for the freezer crate. It comes in 8-foot lengths and cuts down to whatever length is needed for your freezer depth very easily (I used a mitre saw). My crates have a finished length of about 18 inches.
With the PVC slats in hand, building the crates is easy. I printed the ends in PLA and the PVC slats fit perfectly into the printed ends. No glue or fasteners were required. I have been using these crates in my freezer now for over a year and no issues at all.
I designed these for the width of my freezer. I guess there are too many different freezer sides for me to try to address so hopefully yours is about the same as mine. The crates are 6.5″ (165mm) wide.
My before and after photos (shown here) really show the benefit of the crate both in making the freezer more organized and easier to manage and also letting the air circulate within the freezer. Definitely, cut-down cardboard boxes were not a good idea.
As noted earlier, I printed these using PLA but I think PETG would also be a good choice. The same part is used for both ends, so print it twice and connect them with the PVC slats.
The flat blank area on the face of the end is for labelling what is in the crate.
Printing
Material: I choose to use PETG for its durability and flexibility.
My Setup:
Nozzle = 0.4mm
My Settings:
Layer height = 0.2mm
Line width = 0.45mm
Wall count = 4 (1.6mm)
Infill = 40%
Support = Designed to print without supports.
Print Orientation: As shown in the screenshot.
Where to Get My STL Files
You can find my posted STL files on the following sites:
Licensing, Comments and Feedback
I am happy to share my designs (STL files) with our community and welcome you to print them for yourself and even gift them to others. However, I do not permit the use of my designs for commercial purposes (i.e. you can not sell my design(s) or products printed from my design(s)). Thank you for respecting this. If you wish to sell them please contact me and we can work something out.
If you print any of my designs I would appreciate any feedback. I am especially interested in how different designs print with different printers and materials. And, it is always nice to hear back from people who use my designs.
I am working towards commercializing some of my products and experimenting with a few different avenues. I am currently exploring the use of an ETSY shop, my branded site Buku Design and also on Amazon (Canada and USA, ). If you have time please visit my products there to help increase traffic and search success. Thank you.
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