"DoveRail" - Dovetail Organization System

Version 1: 

Zack Freedman's "Gridfinity" has inspired a 3D printed organization craze. While I love Zack and his system in all of its “tech geek madness”, I do not have a workshop, nor the space in my home office for a flat base organization/storage system. I wanted to create a different desktop organization system that incorporated many of the things I love about Gridfinity. Items placed in view and easily accessible, while offering endless system customization, are all qualities that make Gridfinity great. However, by moving to a dovetail style mount, the same customizable system is kept; but also transitions things off of my limited flat working space.

My situation may be a bit odd as I built my desk from scratch. I have a solid wood top to modify, and rarely have my desk cornered in a room. With access to one or more desktop sides, the DoveRail allows one to utilize otherwise wasted space. While I could've gone with a traditional clamp style method, the simplicity behind a couple holes and screws makes for a very clean install and look. (Not to mention far less complicated modeling and printing)

Now for the elephant in the room….

Yes, a lot of these prints are going to require supports..

Unfortunately, a dovetail or french cleat system is going to need supports more often than not. However, using treed supports, I have had no issues with support removal or final print quality defects. The dovetails print quick and cleanly, but many of the organizers require that the upper half of the dovetail slot be supported. While this can be worked around in limited circumstances, I see most models needing support for the slotted profile.

Most of my organizers, if not all (I don't remember which, I've been overcome with Freedman madness), were printed at .28mm layer height. This saves filament and time, but one can get even better results by decreasing layer thickness.

DoveRail sections are 150mm long, all with mounting locations spaced 50mm apart. While it may not be necessary to use every hole, a larger weight capacity is achievable when every one is utilized.

I used some very small drywall screws for easy assembly, and disassembly if required. The DoveRail does not have end stops. I played around with the idea of modeling one in, but simply leaving the last screw slightly proud of the dovetail face works just fine for me.

There are already other designs for different organizers in the works but if you have any other ideas or specific organizers in mind, let me know and I can certainly add them. Currently this is all under Version 1 but as other designs are added I will be updating accordingly.

Below is a photo of the “Container Cutout” for any future remixes. The dimensions are plentiful and messy, but…. this surprisingly took a lot of trial and error to get proper tolerances. All of the STL files should work together just fine, but for anyone wanting to create their own organizers, the cutout is here for your convenience.

Version 2 Update: 01/15/24

Added a holder for my TI-84 graphing calculator. Dimensions should remain pretty standard for most calculators, this holder specifically has internal dimensions of: 28mm wide and 90mm long.