5 3D Printer Projects That Will Level Up Your Garage

Owning a 3D printer, alongside having a healthy supply of filament to use with it, gives you unprecedented opportunities to create all sorts of everyday gadgets and helpers for just about every room of your home or place of business. If you enjoy performing automotive work in your garage, a 3D printer may not be able to print replacement car parts for you, but it can certainly output a variety of simple tools and storage options to organize your garage and optimize your tinkering pursuits.

With a 3D printer and the right designs, you can print all kinds of gadgets to level up your tool collection, from compact drivers for tight engine nooks to portable cord wraps for your power tools and extension cords. So long as you use resilient materials that can endure a bit of physical stress, 3D-printed creations can find a happy home alongside all of your name-brand garage tools. Part of the fun of owning a 3D printer is coming up with your own novel designs, but if you need a jumping off point, you can find interesting designs on sites like Printables.

Many of us like to think we have our personal garage workshops in a state of "organized chaos," with hand tools scattered here and there in an alleged "system." But instead of relying on memory to find things — often at varying degrees of success — it would make a bit more sense to have all of your tools stored logically and sorted clearly. You can easily create dedicated, tailored spaces for your work materials by 3D printing pockets, bins, and tool holders for a pegboard.

Printables user Archipel has designed a system of pegboard-mounted holders for use with generic pegboards, which is perfect for stashing small hand tools, pens and markers for designing, tire pressure gauges, and more. The design includes all kinds of mounts and holders, such as small holed pockets for drill bits and pencils, shelves for screwdrivers and wrenches, and brackets for socket wrenches. The rear hooks will plug right into most pegboards and slat boards, making them an excellent addition for any existing garage or workshop tool board setup.

Working on a car isn't just about busting out muscular power tools and going to town. Cars feature several fine details, such as plastic and rubber components, that are typically flush against other surfaces for protection or aesthetics. If you need to remove these particular components, you need a certain kind of compact prying tool that's resilient enough to do the job without damaging your car. With just one 3D printer file, you can make not just one, but 11 of such tools.

Printables user LevikeOne created a set of 11 assorted trim removal pry tools that are ideal for carefully prying out plastic parts on a car, such as door panels. Poor cable management is an easy-to-make mistake when using dash cams, for instance, but these tools can easily help you route wires for any electronic car accessory. Thanks to their simple shapes, you could easily scale these tools up or down to meet your particular needs. You can also tweak the tool designs if you need specific angles to tackle your car's components. LevikeOne does recommend using a strong print material — like ABS, PETG, or nylon — to ensure your newly printed tools can get a firm grip on your vehicle's components.

When working on a car — especially when working on the underside of a car — it's vitally important that the vehicle is firm in place, whether it's on the ground or jacked up midair. Accidental rolling could result in damage to the car, severe injury to you, or both. Just putting the car in park and pulling up the emergency brake isn't enough; you should also have a set of sturdy wheel chocks to place behind your tires while you're working. Luckily, you can create cheap and effective chocks using nothing more than a 3D printer.

Printables user Allpa created their own printable wheel chock design and dubbed it the "Kylie Xtreme Strong Wheel Chock." These chunky wheel chock bricks are designed to safely prop up tires measuring anywhere between 15 to 19 inches wide, with no added supports necessary. The wheel chock's curved, ridged surface grips your tires to prevent them from rolling. Allpa even designed the chocks to include a rear handle for easy positioning, but the handle can also be used to connect multiple chocks together using a rope or another kind of sturdy fastener. Besides steadying cars in your garage, these chocks are also handy for keeping trailers and motor homes stationary.

One of the annoying things about cars is that they're full of extremely tight, narrow confines, particularly within the engine bay and behind the dashboard. If you want to do any kind of fastening or loosening in these cramped spaces, you're definitely not going to be able to fit a regular screwdriver or power driver in there. For handling tight nooks and crannies while working on your car, try 3D-printing a specialized tool that can fit into narrow spaces.

Printables user Prntmkr designed an extremely small, low-profile 90-degree bit holder for precisely that type of detail work. Just insert a regular hex bit from any modular screwdriver set into the head, and suddenly you've got a sturdy tool for fastening and loosening screws. There's no gearbox or ratchet inside the tool, either; it operates simply by leveraging the force perpendicular to the drive, which is what allows it to be so light and compact. In addition to spots where a regular handled screwdriver can't be used, Prntmkr also recommends using this tool for getting at screws behind electrical panels or at the back of storage cabinets.

For both safety and organization's sake, it's important that you keep all the power cables for your corded tools and accessories firmly wrangled and packed away in your garage. One of the last things you'd want to do is trip and fall somewhere with hard or sharp metal implements lying around; just one misplaced cord could lead to you inadvertently hurting yourself or damaging your likely-expensive tools. To keep your garage free of tripping hazards, all you need is a couple of empty filament spools and a 3D-printed handle to hold them together.

Printables user Garage_Tinkerer came up with a clever way to recycle old filament spools by using them to create what they've called a dual-spool cord wrap. The printable parts of this project include a large, thick carrying handle that you insert into two adjacent spools, flat plates to connect your two spools together, and threaded barrel screws for extra durability. Just like that, you've got a large, mountable, and easy-to-carry spool that's perfect for coiling lengthy power tool cords. This project is also great for other household applications, like storing holiday string lights or even lengths of rope.