There's this awesome little Kickstarter project I backed that just got funded recently. It's called SmartJars, and I saw them for the first time at MakerFaire this year. The product is a nifty translucent jar that has a holder that snaps into ordinary pegboard, like this:
As you can see in the photo above, I've used the samples they sent me to start organizing the boys' Legos. It is pretty awesome for this, and I actually plan to make a spinning SmartJar Tower soon. This would allow them to have a ton of Legos on their table and hopefully keep them more organized than when we just throw them into large bins (this drives me insane, by the way). I'll likely make the tower out of hardboard or baltic birch plywood, because ordinary pegboard from Home Depot is just warped pieces of crap.
The one thing I had an issue with was the size -- small Legos aren't worth putting into one SmartJar because they take up so little space. I could group 1x1 Legos into the same SmartJar, but then I'd have to sift through them, which defeats the point.
I spent a lot of time iterating over my SmartJar accessory, which nicely partitions it into multiple sections. I have three designs -- 2, 3, and 4 compartment versions. Here's what the four-compartment model looks like:
It's a very nice looking piece. I made it on my Replicator 2 out of PLA. The great thing about using MakerBot's PLA is that it is food-grade, so people could use this for separating things like spices that aren't a powder (like peppercorns).
Anyhow, check out what it looks like in a SmartJar, and separating Legos, which was the original intent of the design:
And no spilling!
I'd like to put these up on etsy, since some SmartJars customers might want a few. The problem is that they are really expensive to make. I'm not sure if anyone is willing to fork out $5.00 to get four compartments out of a $2.50 SmartJar. If they were popular enough, I would start my own Kickstarter project and make my own mold, but I really don't have time for that.
Nice work Matz! Well thought out and executed. We're pretty excited on this end to provide a 'platform' to do stuff like this. You mind if we share this on our Facebook page?
ReplyDeleteHi Giacomo, thank you for visiting my blog. Please do share it on Facebook! I'll keep you updated with my SmartJars carousel progress as well via Twitter. That will be really useful for a lot of people that don't like the quality of most pegboard found at places like Home Depot / Lowes.
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