Spacers for Plano 3500-series Tackleboxes

The Plano 3500-series tackleboxes make for pretty solid parts storage. They're solidly injection-molded with clips that are a huge upgrade from those cheap “kit boxes” that come with the typical maker “assortment" packs. There are plenty of 3D printable storage solutions but these aren't too pricey (about $3-5 each) and offer a bit more clear transparency than current 3D printer tech can offer. 

There are two main drawbacks to using these 3500-series boxes for smaller parts.

First, the dividers tend to float up and out of place while picking up parts. This makes it hard to store small things, like M3 washers, without making a mess.

Second, the bins are a decent size for most things but sometimes there's a need for more, smaller bins.

The first of those is easy to fix with a dab of hot-glue on the corners of the dividers. Quick, easily reversable, and practically free if you've already got a hot glue gun laying around. The dividers (both factory dividers and the printable ones here) have handy little ‘shoulders’ at the top, leaving plenty of room for a small dab of hot glue to do its thing without getting in the way of the lid.

Fixing the second one was a head-scratcher until I cooked up these models. With the “2x wide” and "3x wide" panels, along with the “cutout” spacers, its easy to divide just a few parts of a 3500-series bin to get twice the bins. Or all of them, if that's more your speed. :)

These should print easily on any FDM or SLA printer. The sub-divider panels and "cutout" spacers include simple stabilization fins, only on one side to keep this easy for FDM printers.

For print settings, pretty much anything goes. Tested with 0.25mm DRAFT and 0.15mm QUALITY and found no difference in fit.

I think these look pretty good in Prusament Clear PETG with concentric surface infill, but that's just me. :)

Models:

• Spacer
• Spacer w/ Cutout
• 2x Wide Sub-dividing Spacer
• 3x Wide Sub-dividing Spacer