Gridfinity Compatible Organizers You Need to Print Now

by Austin Chloe

Mar 13, 2026

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Gridfinity drawer organizer filled with tools and hardware

Gridfinity is an open-source modular storage standard built on a 42 × 42 × 7 mm grid. You print a baseplate sized to a drawer, then print bins that drop into it via a z-shaped interlocking profile. Every bin from every designer fits every baseplate, because the spec is public and fixed. Start with one 4×4 baseplate and six bins — roughly 10 hours and 200 g of PLA.

What Gridfinity is (and why it took over)

In 2022, Zack Freedman released a YouTube video introducing a free, open-source modular storage system he called Gridfinity. The idea was simple: a standardized grid of 42 mm × 42 mm squares, with bins that snap into baseplates via a z-shaped interlocking profile. Everything is 3D printable. Everything is compatible. And because the spec is open, anyone can design bins for it.

The community ran with it. Within months there were thousands of Gridfinity-compatible designs across the model repositories. Screwdriver holders, battery organizers, soldering iron stands, desk caddies, kitchen drawer dividers. If something fits in a drawer or sits on a bench, someone has designed a Gridfinity bin for it. The Gridfinity project site is the community hub, and a community-maintained specification repository documents the geometry formally.

I started with a single 4×4 baseplate in my workbench drawer. That was three months ago. I now have seven baseplates across four drawers and a desktop. The system is that useful once you see it working.

Gridfinity dimensions, in one table

Parameter	Value	What it means in practice
Grid pitch	42 × 42 mm	One "1×1" module. Divide your drawer by 42 and round down.
Bin footprint	41.5 × 41.5 mm	0.5 mm of clearance so bins seat without binding.
Height unit (1U)	7 mm	A "6-high" bin is 42 mm tall overall.
Base profile stack	0.8 / 1.8 / 2.15 mm chamfers	The interlocking foot. About 4.75 mm of the bin's height.
Usable interior depth	Roughly (height units − 1) × 7 mm	The base eats one unit, so a 6-high bin holds about 35 mm.
Magnet pocket	6 mm diameter × 2 mm	Optional, four per bin, for wall or tilted mounting.
Screw option	M3, corner positions	Optional, for permanently fixing a baseplate down.

The essential prints to start with

Don't print 30 specialty bins before you've lived with the basics. Here's the starter kit that covers 80% of organizational needs.

Baseplates

Everything starts here. A baseplate is a flat grid that bins attach to. Start with a size that fits your drawer. Measure the inside width and depth, divide by 42 mm, and round down. A standard IKEA Alex drawer fits roughly a 6×4 or 7×4 grid.

Print time for a 4×4 baseplate: about 3–4 hours in PLA at standard settings. Here is what each build plate size gets you in a single job:

Build plate	Largest one-piece baseplate	Approx. print time	Approx. filament
220 × 220 mm	5 × 5 (210 mm)	5–6 h	130–170 g
270 × 270 mm	6 × 6 (252 mm)	7–9 h	190–240 g
320 × 320 mm	7 × 7 (294 mm)	10–12 h	260–330 g
390 × 390 mm	9 × 9 (378 mm)	16–20 h	430–540 g

On a larger printer like the Plus4 with its 305 mm build plate, you can print a 7×7 baseplate in a single run. Tiling smaller baseplates side by side also works — they butt together cleanly — but a one-piece plate never drifts out of alignment when a drawer slams.

Standard bins (1×1, 2×1, 3×1)

These are your bread and butter. Print a mix of sizes. The 1×1 bins work for screws, SD cards, and small components. 2×1 bins hold pens, USB drives, or small tools. 3×1 bins are good for scissors, markers, or cable adapters.

The height unit in Gridfinity is 7 mm, and it includes the base. A "3-high" bin is 21 mm tall overall and gives you roughly 14 mm of usable internal depth; a "6-high" bin is 42 mm tall and holds about 35 mm. Match the height to what you're storing. Tall bins for standing tools, short bins for flat items like batteries or cards.

Divider bins

A 3×2 or 4×2 bin with internal dividers turns into a parts organizer for screws, nuts, and washers. Some designs include removable divider walls so you can reconfigure without reprinting. These replace those cheap plastic hardware store organizers that crack after six months.

Starter kit at a glance

Item	Quantity	Print time	Filament
4×4 baseplate	1	3–4 h	80–120 g
1×1×3 bin	6	25 min each	10–15 g each
2×1×3 bin	4	45 min each	20–25 g each
3×1×5 bin	2	1.5 h each	45–55 g each
Total	13 parts	9–11 h	~300 g

Specialized bins worth your print time

Once the basics are in place, the specialized bins are where Gridfinity starts pulling ahead of any off-the-shelf organizer. You're not limited to rectangular boxes anymore.

Screwdriver and hex key holders

Sized holes that hold specific driver sizes upright. No more rattling around in a drawer. I printed a set with labelled hex key slots (1.5 mm through 10 mm) and it's one of the most-used prints in my shop.

Battery organizers

Fitted slots for AA, AAA, CR2032, and 9V cells. Some designs include a test LED circuit you can wire in. The community has iterated on these extensively, so the sizing is dialled. Print one and you'll stop buying cardboard battery caddies.

Soldering station bins

Holders for soldering iron tips, solder spools, flux pens, and tweezers. These combine the Gridfinity grid with tool-specific geometry that no generic organizer offers. A few designs integrate with the DDD Wall Control system so you can mount Gridfinity on a pegboard.

Kitchen drawer inserts

Spice jar holders, utensil dividers, and K-cup organizers. The kitchen is an underrated Gridfinity application. Because you're designing to your exact drawer dimensions, the fit is perfect in a way that store-bought organizers never achieve. Use PETG if the drawer is near a heat source like an oven.

Electronics component bins

Resistor, capacitor, and connector bins with label slots. Some designs use a card-catalog approach with pull-out trays. For anyone working with SMD components or Arduino parts, these are transformative.

If you're looking for more functional print ideas beyond Gridfinity, there's a broader collection worth browsing. And for makers just getting started, the beginner projects guide covers first prints that teach practical skills.

TPU Gridfinity bins: when soft is better

This comes up constantly and deserves a straight answer. TPU works well for Gridfinity bins and badly for Gridfinity baseplates.

Where soft bins win: anything holding metal. A rigid PLA bin full of drill bits or sockets rattles every time the drawer moves, and the bits chew the walls. A 95A TPU bin damps the noise, grips the contents, and shrugs off impact that would crack PLA. The same applies to bins holding camera batteries, lenses, glass vials, or anything you would rather not hear knocking about.

Where soft bins lose: the interlocking profile. Gridfinity's fit depends on a 0.5 mm clearance holding its shape. TPU deflects under the friction of insertion and removal, so a TPU bin in a rigid baseplate feels vague rather than clicking home, and a TPU baseplate deforms under a loaded bin. Print the baseplate rigid and the bins soft, never the other way round.

Settings that work for TPU bins:

Setting	Value	Note
Filament	95A TPU	Softer grades feed poorly and lose the base profile entirely.
Nozzle / bed	225–235 °C / 40–50 °C	Let it cool fully before removal or you will stretch the base.
Speed	25–40 mm/s (higher with a high-flow grade)	Limited by extruder pressure, not motion.
Horizontal expansion	−0.10 to −0.20 mm	TPU tends to print slightly oversized. Test one bin first.
Walls / infill	3 walls, 12 %	More infill just makes the bin stiffer, defeating the point.

A direct-drive machine is effectively required — the high-flow 95A TPU feeds far more predictably than standard grades at these geometries. For the broader flexible-filament workflow, printing TPU phone cases is a good half-hour rehearsal before you commit to a drawer's worth of bins.

Gridfinity vs Multiboard: which one do you actually need?

These get compared constantly, and the comparison is usually framed wrongly. They solve different problems.

	Gridfinity	Multiboard
Created by	Zack Freedman, 2022	Keep Making
Grid	42 × 42 mm square	25 mm hex-based tile grid
Primary surface	Drawers, benchtops, shelves	Walls and vertical panels
How things attach	Bins drop in by gravity and a z-profile	Snap connectors through the tile grid
Best for	Small parts you sort and carry to a bench	Tools you want visible and hung
Cross-compatible?	Not natively — the pitches differ. Community adapters exist that mount Gridfinity plates onto a Multiboard wall.

In practice most workshops end up with both: Multiboard on the wall for tools you reach for, Gridfinity in the drawers for the parts those tools use. If you can only build one, pick by surface — drawers mean Gridfinity, bare wall means Multiboard.

Print settings that actually fit

Gridfinity's 42 mm grid is precise. If your prints are even slightly oversized, bins won't seat into baseplates. If they're undersized, they'll rattle. Getting the tolerances right is the difference between a satisfying click and a frustrating wobble.

Recommended settings

Setting	Value	Notes
Layer height	0.2 mm	Good balance of speed and quality. The grid profile doesn't need finer layers.
Walls	3–4	Enough strength for bin walls without wasting material
Infill	15–20% (grid or gyroid)	Bins don't need structural infill. Save the plastic.
First layer	Calibrated carefully	The baseplate profile depends on accurate first layers. Auto-leveling helps.
Material	PLA	Fine for indoor use. PETG if you want extra durability, TPU for bins holding metal.

Tolerance tips

The 42 mm grid spec uses a 41.5 mm bin footprint, leaving 0.5 mm of clearance. If your printer consistently prints slightly oversized (common with new or uncalibrated machines), you'll notice bins fitting too tightly or not at all.

Print a single 1×1 bin and a small 2×2 baseplate as a test. If the fit is too tight, reduce your horizontal expansion in the slicer by 0.1–0.15 mm. If it's too loose, increase it. One test print saves you from wasting a 10-hour baseplate.

The Q2 with its load-cell auto-leveling handles first-layer consistency well, which matters for the baseplate's interlocking profile. For understanding how infill patterns and density affect strength, that guide covers the tradeoffs for functional prints like these.

Customizing the system

The real power of Gridfinity is that you're not limited to downloading other people's designs. The parametric tools let you create exactly what you need.

Gridfinity Rebuilt (OpenSCAD)

The Gridfinity Rebuilt project by kennetek is a ground-up rebuild of the Gridfinity system in OpenSCAD. You input your desired grid size, height, number of dividers, label tab options, and magnet holes, and it generates a printable STL. If you're comfortable editing a few parameters in a script, this is the most flexible tool available.

Web-based generators

For people who'd rather click than code, there are browser-based Gridfinity generators. These let you adjust bin dimensions, add dividers, choose whether to include scoop fronts or label tabs, and export the STL directly. No software installation required.

Magnet and screw options

Standard Gridfinity bins sit in their baseplates by gravity and the z-profile interlock. For bins that need to stay put — on angled surfaces or in drawers that slam shut — you can add 6 mm × 2 mm magnets in the four corners. Some baseplates also accept M3 screws. These options add cost and print complexity, but they're worth it for bins that get jostled.

If you find yourself designing custom parts frequently, the guide to designing and printing replacement parts covers the CAD-to-print workflow. And for organizing your espresso station or other small-item collections, Gridfinity bins work as dedicated inserts.

Where to put it all

I've found Gridfinity most useful in these spots:

Workshop tool drawers. This is the obvious one. Wrenches, screwdrivers, drill bits, sandpaper. Every tool has a home. I haven't lost an Allen key in three months, which is a personal record.

Desk drawers. USB cables, dongles, SD cards, Post-its, pens. The desk drawer goes from a tangled mess to something you can actually find things in. A 4×3 baseplate fits most standard desk drawers.

Kitchen junk drawer. Every house has one. Batteries, tape, scissors, rubber bands, twist ties. A Gridfinity baseplate turns the junk drawer into the utility drawer.

Craft and hobby storage. Paint pots, miniature basing supplies, sewing notions, beading supplies. Anything with lots of small items in varied sizes benefits from the modular approach.

Electronics bench. Components, connectors, solder tips, multimeter probes. The pull-out-tray designs are especially good here because you can bring a bin to your work area and return it when done.

Start small. One drawer, one baseplate, a handful of bins. Live with it for a week. Then you'll understand why the Gridfinity community keeps growing. The PLA Basic from the common filaments collection is all you need for this. And for bins that might see more wear or hold heavy tools, a TPU liner or pad on the bottom can keep things from sliding around.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gridfinity?

Gridfinity is an open-source modular storage standard for 3D printed organizers, released by Zack Freedman in 2022. It defines a 42 × 42 mm grid with a 7 mm height unit, so any bin from any designer fits any baseplate. You print a baseplate for a drawer and then whatever bins you need.

What are the Gridfinity dimensions?

The grid pitch is 42 × 42 mm and the bin footprint is 41.5 × 41.5 mm, leaving 0.5 mm of clearance. One height unit is 7 mm and includes the base, so usable interior depth is roughly (height units − 1) × 7 mm. Magnet pockets are 6 mm diameter by 2 mm deep; screw options use M3.

Can you print Gridfinity bins in TPU?

Yes, and it is a good idea for bins holding metal tools or fragile items — 95A TPU damps rattle and resists impact. Print the baseplate rigid in PLA or PETG, though. A TPU baseplate deforms under a loaded bin and the interlocking profile stops working.

How much filament does a Gridfinity setup use?

A 4×4 baseplate uses roughly 80–120 g of PLA depending on thickness options. A standard 1×1×3 bin uses about 10–15 g. A full drawer setup with a baseplate and 12–16 bins runs 300–500 g total — under half a spool for most configurations.

PLA or PETG for Gridfinity bins?

PLA for everything indoors. It prints faster, the tolerances are easier to hit, and the bins don't need the extra toughness or heat resistance of PETG. Use PETG only for bins that hold heavy metal tools, or if the storage area gets hot — a drawer beside an oven, or one in direct sun.

Do I need magnets?

Not for flat drawers. The z-profile interlock keeps bins in place during normal use. Add 6 mm × 2 mm magnets if you're mounting baseplates on a wall, using them on a tilted surface, or if your drawers slam hard enough to dislodge bins.

Can I print Gridfinity on a small printer?

Yes. A 1×1 bin is 42 mm square, so even a 150 mm plate prints useful bins and small baseplates. Larger plates just let you print bigger baseplates in one piece instead of tiling: 220 mm gets you 5×5, 270 mm gets 6×6, 320 mm gets 7×7 and 390 mm gets 9×9.

Gridfinity or Multiboard?

Pick by surface. Gridfinity's 42 mm square grid is designed for drawers and benchtops; Multiboard's 25 mm hex tile grid is designed for walls. They are not natively cross-compatible, though community adapters mount Gridfinity plates onto Multiboard walls. Most workshops eventually run both.

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