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I like to work on pet projects to improve the little things around me. A lot of the time that doesn't require any CAD work, but sometimes it's worth putting in the time to figure things out properly before I commit myself to a lot of Home Depot or Hackerspace trips. All these are viewable in the browser if you click the "Onshape document" links.
Monitor Arm
Monitor Arm
One of the areas in consumer products I find the most disappointing is monitor arms. For some reason the aesthetics everyone wants for their desk is some spindly creation with organic curves, which leaves little to no moment arm for any of the rotary joints to resist axial runout and/or backlash. It makes it impossible to share anything with someone or move your monitor without incurring some kind of noticeable misalignment. This is something I'm mulling over until I'm 99% positive it's what I want before I go buying the BOM and printing the parts. Despite my sunk costs at this point, a monitor stand doesn't seem to me like the kind of thing I should have to spend time worrying about. Additionally, I'm restricting myself to hand tools and a printer out of curiosity, how accessible they are to others, and possibly just gluttony for punishment. Machine tools would obviously make this completely trivial. If you wanted to overkill the problem completely, there are pneumatic tap arms that could probably handle the weight of a monitor several times over.
Bose DAC knob mount
Bose DAC knob mount
This is just one of the many things I've printed in my spare time to declutter my desk. I like to route things underneath for cable management and clutter. Next time I put a headphone jack there I'll make sure to put a strain relieved extension. I didn't anticipate how often kids would get up and walk away with headphones still on their heads, and the jack went bad after a few months of getting pulled out by a kid moving at full steam. I never actually took a picture of this, which is a bummer. Bose doesn't sell replacement parts for the headphones this came with, so I'll never have use of it again.
Xbox Stick Customization
Xbox Stick Customization
One of the common problems I run into in terms of fit is the Gollum hands I got from my dear old dad. When Microsoft released a controller with interchangeable sticks I thought that might fit me better, but it still felt like there was barely any travel even on the longest version. But replacement sticks are available online, so I decided to cut some up and make an adjustable extension with removable spacers. I'm also not fond of the stick wandering around under the meaty part of your thumb pad, so I narrowed the point of contact to just the surface of an M3 countersunk screw, and knurled its edges. It's got great tactile feedback and you never reposition your thumb. Additionally there's "added precision" due to your motions being amplified, but I never took enough time to be good enough at shooters to be able to notice.
I don't dedicate much time to games these days, but I still like to have the controller around regardless.
Trackball Pronation Stand
Trackball Pronation Stand
Nothing special here. I just needed a left handed trackball stand because Logitech doesn't make the fancy ones for lefties. The fifteen minutes it took in Solidworks was worth it a million times over.
Coaster
Coaster
Fiber coasters get gross, and solid coasters don't actually absorb or prevent condensation from flowing onto a wooden surface unless you add a lip. Then the water drips off the bottom of your glass when you pick it up.
This design lets you have a nice reservoir for the water and keeps it off of the receptacle, but also lets you take it apart and clean it in whatever method appropriate to your printed material.
It's also parameterized for customization of the hole size and coaster diameter with Onshape's configuration tables, which are my favorite implementation of configurations in any CAD platform.
Coaster
Harsh Environment Connector
Harsh Environment Connector
One thing I've given some thought in working with hermetic connectors is that they seem to thread on the outside exclusively. Those threads take up a large share of the cross sectional area of the connector. In the case of a right angle connector, a simple screw through the middle could easily provide enough clamping force while opening the space on the perimiter up to pins. This example is set up to be scoop proof, and there's sufficient room on the housings for keying. I still haven't thought of a good way to make this translate to a straight connector but I've been giving it some thought. Ideas being cheap, I don't know who I could get to follow through on it (e.g. pay me to), but it seems like a great idea to me for at least some applications.
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