Watercolor Paint Tube Tray - 10 Slot

Edit 18 Aug 2023: 

A kind user ( @BeckyMarriott_597138 ) asked me about the different tube sizes shown in my original cover photo, and I realized that my workflow changed in the middle of this design! 

When I first designed this piece (the original .STL file I uploaded), I was using a FlashForge Creator Pro printer, and was using the Simplify3D workflow to slice, and I didn't really “get” how the whole “.factory” thing worked. Main point: the original .STL file is too small for most paint tubes, probably. Or at least not ideal size.

The ones shown are very likely sized up 115% (that's what I named the file, and I trust myself), and 115% + 130% respectively. I believe if you want to reproduce what I did, without using the new .3mf files I uploaded today, you can just scale up the original .STL in your slicer by 115% on all three axes and you'll have the actual “small” shown in the photo. If you want the larger one, for larger tubes, add 130% on top of that 115% base. Now, if I were a math expert, I'd tell you that's not 145%…but it's 149.5% or something? If my very basic notes in the filenames are accurate, that means that it's 115% symmetrical increase (X, Y and Z) for the “small” and a total of around 150% (from the original base .STL) for the “large.”

I just uploaded two additional images, so you can see which paint tubes fit in which size. The sparkle black is the “large” (around 150% from base .STL) and the sparkle blue is the “small” (around 115% increase from the base .STL). Think I got a good sampling of the various size paint tubes for those tracking that.

I've uploaded the .3mf files. Please let me know in the comments if those work for you. I have no idea how transferable or standard these files are. These .3mf files were created with Bambu Studio, so you may get settings that your slicer doesn't know about. Adventure!

Original Notes:

Artists usually need more than one or two tubes of paint. They also tend to buy small, medium and large tubes. Now, you could have all of your tubes just sitting in a box, or in a drawer, or on your desk, or maybe even on your bed. But then at some point, it's hard to find what you're looking for. Large tube of red? Nah, that's a small one. Medium tube of aqua? If only there were a way….

With the very simple paint tube tray, you can place all of your like-sized tubes in a tray, and then stack those trays on top of each other. 50 tubes? Print 5. Need them taller, or wider, or longer, just adjust them in your 3D slicing software, and you can make them the size of the moon if you'd like.

Designed from the start to be stackable, we've printed three or four sizes, and they stack perfectly.

Love the design? Have a suggestion? Please comment below, and show me your makes! I love to see my designs out in the wild!