Geometric Pencil Pot Series: 11 Designs

These pencil/pen pots are designed using helical, hexagonal, spherical, and spiral patterns and geometries. The aim was to produce pencil/pen pots with a modern aesthetic and serve as functional art on a maker's desk!

For each design there is a vase mode and a sturdy version. The vase mode versions are designed to print in vase mode which will be fastest but not super strong (they hold pens just fine), and the sturdy versions are designed to print withmore normal settings for more strength. The sturdy models also have some chamfers to make them nicer to handle with the added perimeters. Below are two of the designs printed in PLA and PETG.

NOTE: The vase mode 3MF file has all of the STLs on separate plates ready to slice, the sturdy 3MF only has 3 preloaded as slicing all of them can take a while.

Print Settings

The 3MF files included have the base settings I used, feel free to adjust them to your machine/materials. A bried summary of the settings is as follows, full settings are in the 3MF files.

Vase mode settings:

Spiral vase: On

Layer height: 0.2mm

To add strength to the print whilst still using vase mode you could increase the default extrusion width, I find they are strong enough without this though.

Sturdy settings:

Spiral vase: Off

Layer height: 0.2mm

Perimeters: 3 or 4

No support is necessary for either mode, I do usually use a brim to stop edges curling but if your bed adhesion is good enough this isn't necessary.

Design summary

There are 11 designs in total:

• Hex sweep variants: Exterior of pot is made of hexagon rotated clockwise/counter clockwise/both (2 designs)

  

• Dimple variants: Exterior of pot has inwards/outwards dimple pattern similar to a golf ball (2 designs)

  

• Grid variants: Exterior of pot has rectangular grid either inset or extruded from surface (2 designs)

  

• Drill variants: Exterior of pot is made of swept “fluted” shape to give the appearance of a large drill bit (2 designs)

  

• Helix cut variants: Exterior of pot has helical cuts rotated clockwise/counter clockwise/both (2 designs)

  

• Straight cut variant: Exterior has simple straight cuts along vertical direction (1 design)

  

Design by LanzDesign on MakerWorld (license: BY).