3D printing is such a fun way to produce creative work—and it has totally taken off. Now, creators are using this amazing new technology to create all kinds of wild and wonderful 3D printer projects that were previously all but impossible to make at home.
These 3D printer projects are a great addition to your . This is such a hot space that showing your mastery of this chic craft could win you some big new clients.
Want to get in on this cool 3D prints trend? We’ve compiled a list of 63 inspiring 3D printing ideas to fuel your next 3D printer design. So, what can you make with a 3D printer? Well, there’s something for everyone!
The 3DBenchy appears to be nothing more than an adorable plastic boat, but it’s more than that. This little guy was designed specifically to test the limits of your machine and calibrate it to operate optimally. It’s one of the simplest—and most useful—3D printer projects you can start with.
Next in our list of cool things to 3D print is a simple project that can be completed in approximately one hour and will produce a whistle. It can produce an eye-popping 118db sound, perfect for camping or sporting events.
A handy and practical creation—and one of the simplest 3d printer designs on the list—this quick-to-create project allows you to affix your sunglasses to the visor of your car.
If there’s one thing we can all agree on, its that earbud cords are a pain in the butt to keep organised. They constantly get tangled and eventually produce the dreaded earphone-crackle, rendering your treasured music-makers useless. This is a great example of what you can make with a 3D Printer that can improve your everyday life.
This carabiner is surprisingly durable, with a strong frame and a flexible hinge. It can withstand up to 30kg of weight, which is pretty substantial for rendered plastic! Don’t, however, be tempted to use this to support your own weight, as they are not designed to support that much strain.
A simple toy originally created for Settlers of Catan, this project is durable and (in our opinion) cute. This is one of those 3D printer projects you could use in a few ways: gaming, office desk decoration, children’s toy, you name it! Plus, T-Rexes are (always!) cool.
Inspired by Swiss Army Knives, the Proteus Key Holder is a wonderful pocket device that will keep your keys all organized in a logical fashion. Hands-down one of the best things to 3D print, thanks to all the time you’ll save fishing through your pockets.
Organise your desk, and add a little flair at the same time! With these simple 3D printer designs, you’ll have all you need to generate truly unique desktop organizers that not only keep your stuff where it needs to be, but look cool as well.
Get your headphones off your desk and onto a specially crafted hanger of your own design. Great for home and the office, these are the kinds of simple and effective 3D printer ideas that can make a big impact with very little effort.
With a 3D printer you’ll be able to replace your dinnerware with new and original 3D printer designs in no time at all. Take this blueberry-themed bowl, for example. Why stop there? There are numerous other designs for plates and bowls out there to make eating at home a unique experience.
Why use traditional planters to hold your plants? There are cool 3D prints out there that don’t allow you to skip the traditional clay pots. These modular little guys are modern and fresh and guaranteed to make your mini-garden more attractive.
While it won’t be holding up a car in a garage any time soon, this platform jack can still withstand a fairly reasonable amount of weight, allowing you access pesky undersides. It’s great for painting models and other hobbyist tasks.
Get rid of those 72 measuring spoons from your utensil drawer and replace them all with a single implement! One of the most immediately useful cool 3D prints in this list, it’ll make for an interesting tool that others will want when they see it.
Mitre boxes are extremely useful when it comes to crafting. In just a few minutes, your 3D printer can spit one out and have you making exact cuts in your crafting projects in no time at all. Just add a blade, and you’re golden.
USB keys are useful devices—until you misplace them and lose all your precious data. Help prevent this by manufacturing your own desktop device to hold all your various keys! This is one of the most useful 3D printed objects available for your office.
We all need to do our part in cutting down on our water usage, right? Well, this water-saving attachment for your faucet is super quick to produce, a breeze to install, and uses very little material to create!
Stop the tyranny of cords taking over your desk and entertainment unit and 3D print some space-saving cable management devices. You’ll cut back on desk clutter and all that cord-related aggravation. These are the blessed 3D printed objects that make life a little less annoying!
Sometimes the office gets boring. Pass the time by constructing these fun things to 3d print: little catapults! Work on your (probably) lacking marksperson skills with these adorable wee “weapons” that can fire small projectiles up to two meters away (perfect for mastering your paper-in-wastebasket game).
If you dig camping, or just want a convenient set of small cutlery for use at the office or in the cafeteria, you can’t go wrong with this 3D printer design. They’re functional, portable, and take only a short time to create!
Nearly everyone these days has a smartphone, and we’ve likely all had moments where we wanted to prop up our phones for viewing video or photos and had to resort to piled books or whatever else is on hand. And it rarely works out as well as we hope! That makes this tiny project one of the coolest 3D printed objects on the list. Plus, they look like cats. Cats are good.
Small projects like this are what really make 3D printer designs a delight. Nearly all of us need some form of brush or comb to keep our untamed locks from becoming a tangled mess, and when it’s this simple to create, why not give it a shot?
A perennial childhood favorite, kids love them just as much today. Of course, adults can enjoy these toys, too. They could be just the ticket to break through some !
Remember that Malcolm in the Middle scene where the family resorted to driving over the toothpaste to get the last little drops out of the tube? Now you can print a device that will make squeezing out every bit of Colgate much easier.
This one gets our vote for one of the best 3D printer designs in this list. Bookworms! Want a nice, easy way to keep your pages propped open? Designed with larger books in mind, this tool is delightfully useful.
With this device, you can open bottles—using only one hand! Keep one or two in your drawer at home, or make a few and keep them on hand as great host gifts.
Stop dog-earing those pristine pages! These cool 3D prints allow you to remember exactly where you left off in your mystery novel or adventure yarn. Added bonus: Hedwig greets you every time you come back to reading!
Today in you can do that?!: wallets made in a 3D printer. Why pay $50 a pop for a leather one when you can create one in your house in an hour, complete with card slots? This is one of those things to 3D print that we all could use.
A truly inspiring 3D printing idea, these pop-out business cards allow you to speak to clients in a way they won’t have experienced many times (if ever) before! Rather than a drab piece of cardboard, hand them a toy they can assemble that speaks much louder than a traditional printed card.
Can’t sit still? Searching for a 3D printer project to help you focus? Look no further. Fidget spinners are an excellent way to occupy your mind, and this 3D printed object will definitely do the trick.
We’re all trying to squeeze in any little bit of exercise we can into our busy days. This is a cool 3D print for folks looking for office or hotel fitness hacks. The tin-can dumbbell provides a super-budget means to pump some iron by affixing two cans of food to a plastic handle. Now, you can work out anywhere! All you need are some cans.
One of the most fun things to 3D print on this list, these gimmicky little toys are quite literally affixed to food items found in your house. A lemon helicopter? A banana-car? Why not! Awesome for providing hours of enjoyment to restless rainy-day kiddos.
Now, this is neat! With a 3D printer and just a small amount of time, you can produce an actual musical instrument. Savor the wayback-playback of rocking out on a whistle, just like your grade school days.
Definitely among the most interesting 3D printing ideas in this list (and showcasing a bit more complexity than other entries), the dragonfly is a tiny little flying machine you can whip up in a short time. It’s perfect for providing a little entertainment for your kids on a rainy day.
Why settle for boring cutlery in your drawer? With minimal effort you can produce some decorative handles for your eating utensils and wow visitors to your humble abode. When they inevitably ask “so, what can you print with a 3D printer?”, you can tell them they’re eating with it!
Drop your phone into these useful little devices to amplify the sound from its speakers. They offer surprisingly high-quality sound—and now you don’t need to lug portable speakers around on picnics or at the beach.
Coasters: what a boring purchase! Thanks to simple 3D printer designs like this, we won’t need to spend our hard-earned cash on flimsy little discs anymore. Make your own coasters with whatever designs you want, and say goodbye to tacky freebies and over-priced novelty ones.
A fun toy and a great example of what you can print with a 3D printer that goes outside the norm, these little chassis are fun to play with and uber-simple to make. Toss a few together for a birthday party and the kids will be kept busy for quite a while.
Whether you are a leatherworker or just want to make your guitar strap look more interesting, these tiny little devices will make your plain leather goods look much cooler. (Bonus: they can also be used as ink stamps!)
3D printing isn’t all gimmicks and fun toys: there are very real applications for this technology in the health industry, and they are swiftly becoming the best things to 3D print. For those of us suffering from flat feet or other foot-related ailments, orthotics can be prohibitively expensive. With a few bucks, you can engineer your own and improve your well-being. (Just be sure to consult a doctor before using them.)
Definitely one of the most original ideas in this list, the Post-Box Popsicle is designed to help you send freezable liquids in a mould, ready to freeze, to friends and family. Just fill the mould with liquid, seal it, and send it off!
While we’re talking about moulds, why not engineer some cool forms for chocolate, ice, baking, or other delicious things? These are killer for parties, thanks to your treats shaped like superheroes or cute animals.
This one is seriously impressive: a fully functional camera made almost entirely out of 3D printed objects! It’s an interesting project well worth your time just to see what these fantastic machines can really do.
You can also create mini topographies in your 3D printer, and then turn them into cute objets for home or office! Want a Mt.Fuji paperweight? How about a New York skyline bookend? Or even a 3D map for tabletop strategy gaming! Worth exploring, this is one of the most interesting 3D printer designs in this list.
A truly original idea, these sculpts are a clever mix of art and engineering that are totally wind-powered. Set it down and watch it walk around!
If you’re an audiophile, you’ll truly appreciate this entry as one of the best things to 3d print. By converting audio files, you can create your own records that will play on turntables. Why limit it to music? Record your own special messages to loved ones and send out the love!
Now things are getting complicated! With a 3D printer, you’re able to produce lab-ready tools that are complex enough to extract DNA at home. Whoa!
Did your frames break again? That’s never a pleasant experience, but with a 3D printer handy, you won’t ever need to worry about it again. This is for certain one of the most useful 3d printing ideas on our list.
Simple 3D printer designs like this are great to have on hand. Hinges are always useful, and come in handy all over the house. These particular designs are super-simple, even by 3D printing standards, requiring just a single step!
With a sliding clasp, these unique chip clip designs work quite well and are fantastically simple things to 3d print.
Lightweight and surprisingly sturdy, this 3D printer design functions on-par with its more common metal counterparts.
Another musical instrument, the electric violin is more complicated than the penny whistle was, but well worth the extra effort. Violin music can be truly beautiful, and the sounds produced by this cheap project rival professional violins at a fraction of the cost. If you are looking to explore amazing things to 3D print and want to learn the instrument, then this is a no-brainer!
A larger-scale project than other entries on the list, the Drawing Machine is quite unique: attach a pen and create works of art from files on your computer. This 3D printer project can help you produce invitations, cards or any other manner of drawings.
Topping our list of cool things to 3D print, an old-style orrery not only looks awesome but gives accurate representations of the current positions of planets and moons in our solar system. Note that this is a complicated task involving more than simple plastics, and will take more than basic understanding of your 3D printer to produce.
Coffee makes life worth living. Without it, office life would be all but intolerable! But what if your coffee machine is on the fritz and you don’t have a replacement handy? Print one! This is one of those fun things to 3D print that makes a great conversation-starter, or gift for the java-obsessed friend in your life.
Some nostalgic old-timey engineering comes into play with these uber-neat 3D printer designs. Relive the past and have your desk decorated with a sign that uses something other than LED or LCD displays!
If you’re a photographer, you know how much a camera slider can cost you (i.e. an arm and a leg), so why pay out of pocket when you can manufacture your own with a little bit of time and dedication? They’re fully motorized and work like a charm.
If you’re wondering what you can make with a 3D printer that is truly amazing, would you believe you can manufacture your own telescope? Link it up with the power of a microcomputer to perform marvellous feats of stargazing.
A real robot made in your house with only a few wires and some 3D printed materials? Yes, please. While you won’t be taking over earth with a robotic army any time soon, it’s a start! Begin assembling your robotic horde today! This is definitely one of the coolest 3d printed objects on our list.
You want cool things to 3D print? How about a remote-controlled hovercraft that you can zoom around on land and water? It’ll need some extra parts to properly function, but is well worth the time and effort to get them and take your vessel out on her maiden voyage.
Thanks to this DIY project, you can produce your own functioning drone for a small fraction of the cost of those available on the market. You can even toss a camera in there! Hands down, this is one of the coolest 3D printed projects on our list.
This is perhaps one of the most advanced projects here: a fully-functioning robot arm. It can be programmed and used for a variety of purposes—but most important of all, it’ll sharpen your skills and really show the world what you can do with 3D printer designs.
With a bit of technology, effort, and time, you can even design a fully-functioning electric unicycle to help you get around. It’s a complicated but amazing 3D printer project to explore due to the various techniques involved; it will really hone your ability to work with your device.
This hobby has really boomed in the last several years, and 3D printers are part of the reason why. Thanks to them, some truly awe-inspiring costumes can be produced for a relatively affordable price. It’s hard not to be inspired by such creations.
Share Your 3D Printer Projects With the World
Now that you’ve got a bunch of really amazing 3D printer projects completed, why not showcase your cool 3D prints? We’d recommend an that has a variety of to choose from (so you can find one that fits with your ) and offers a (that way, you can make sure it has all the you need). Once clients see all your 3D printer designs, they’ll be clamouring to have you print something magical just for them.
Now get out there, get creative, and start turning heads with amazing 3D creations!
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