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Let me start this with:
@Josh-3D I just realized that you’re the one who made the Sci-Fi case i’ve been eying for months now. It’s still very high up on my list of things i want to print but i’m also struggling to find babo modules to fill it with.
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It looks like a nice variant of a gridfinity case:
or this:
https://www.printables.com/model/543553-gridfinity-storage-box-by-pred-now-parametric
which would be cooler if the designer hadn’t removed the magnets that he had in the bottom of an earlier version.
thought I was about to get called out for something bad 
I’m actually doing a gridfinity version of that case right now. I was working on doing some more babo modulars, but ended up giving in to the grid. I want to do a set of gridfinity inserts for it to go along with it’s released, but haven’t got that far yet.
I like that case! Nice design. Haha, funny enough though, for me, did not like the size of gridfinity for storing m3 screws. I have a modified version of gridifnity that adjust the bins to be like 50mm or something like that. Debated awhile about releasing it, but saw that case (I made a case to go with my modified bins) and decided against it.
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haha no, luckily not.
I have seen so many models using this system, but never actually looked at it, I have to admit. I guess now is the time.
Pretty much what happened to me about a week ago, haha. I was starting to plot out some new inserts that’d fit that Babo system, but decided to search up gridfinity and see what people have actually done. I wanted to put together a general use toolkit, and there’s just not much for Babo in that realm. Sounds like you were running into the same shortcoming.
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Gridfinity was the only reason I got approval to buy into the Bambu world (the head of finance wanted some stackable boxes lol). I generally don’t like it, the grid takes a lot of filament and time to make. It does look attractive and feeds my OCD, but after the first batch I wandered off to easier models that don’t always fit.
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I can believe it. It’s a very practical reason.
It’s also one of the reasons why I want a bigger printer! I want to be able to print entire normal-sized drawers, not just little things that go in them. Imagine being able to do a print-in-place where you get not only the drawer but all the gridfinity organization already built in.
If you were to hire profesionals to do that for you using conventional means, it would cost a fortune. The cost of a printer is small in comparison.
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Love the Babo system, works great in my duo drawers under my AMS’s. I too just recently started investigating Gridfinity as I want to replace my desktop tool holder that I designed quite a few years ago. Gridfinity is tempting but it’s not exactly space efficient. A trade off I think I’m willing to make for the flexibility it offers. Change a tool, customize a new block to fit and replace the old one. That’s my hopes anyway. I’m on my second spool of PLA now with it and will admit it does burn up the filament.
I had never heard of Babo before. Looks similar though. Which system is better?
Not sure one is better than the other. The Babo stuff isn’t as wide spread and is a little more focused towards Bambu printers and servicing them. That case I did, I have 4 of them, one for each printer, all with parts specific to that printer. I like the size and style a lot.
Gridfinity is more widespread and universal, but can be a little hit or miss in that venture. I’ve found a lot of gridinfity models, but at the same time, I still struggled to find what I need.
For me personally, I’m thinking ahead a bit to the day I can hopefully get a full tool chest with drawers, and I want everything to be in inserts. I just like being organized like that. I’ve been debating in my head a bit about it all, and my current venture is to explore those ideas. I want to create bins big enough to hold like cordless tools and stuff. I’ve got a Kobra 2 Max for larger prints.
The grid system with gridinfity is cool, but it strikes me too that at the scale I’m thinking, that grid system can become a bit of a filament sink too.
I want Bambu to get into the larger printer game. Want an AMS at that size, and to be able to setup print profiles and all that jazz. Since Makerworld is my main release platform, it can be a little frustrating because large stuff like that easily gets lost.
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I think one could argue for having an even smaller size than 42x42mm as the fundamental unit size. Not sure at what point diminishing returns would kick in, but maybe 21x21mm would still be fine. The reason being: sometimes you have only a very few small things that need to be stored, and you don’t want to take up the space of a larger container. The present workaround to this, to use 21x21mm as the example, is to fit 4 smaller chambers into a single gridfinity. However, that starts to break the paradigm of being able to re-arrange everything at will without getting hemmed in.
I too have experienced the problem of too much gridfinity clutter. Too many poorly conceived models creating noise, making it hard to find the good models.
This has been my biggest struggle with Gridfinity, I find things that are close but end up having to modify the model or recreating one from blank templates. This takes a lot of time and sometimes multiple prints to dial in.
As to 42mm, he choose it when he designed his window containers that use a microscope slide for the window. Babo, is 30mm and to be honest it works better in the metric world being able to build up to metric sized drawers like some of my shop ikea drawers or General (HF) tool boxes.
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Regardless of the system, it would be nice if it were curated in some way, similar to how Linux is. Anyone can try to contribute, but only worthwhile stuff that passes certain quality standards makes it into an official release.
Alas, that would require a monk or someone like that to administer.
The same guy tried to do gridfinity 2.0, based on hexagons. Not sure if it was a joke or something to begin with, but it seems to have fallen completely flat on its face. No one wants to wreck what progress they’ve made just to convert over to a totally different standard. I don’t see how it ever made any sense.
The guy who started the whole trend was:
but he kept his design behind a paywall, which limited its influence, and also I later realized that the atomic unit size was too big. So, yeah, 42mm or 30mm makes more sense, because it’s smaller.
I kinda like the magnet idea in gridfinity. It’s that extra degree of locking-in that’s nice. You don’t have to use it, but it’s there if you want to.
Maybe better search tools or a better rating system will solve the clutter problem. If you can search by popularity or rating, it would help a lot.
If you look inside Dean Kamen’s home workshop, he has drawer upon drawer upon drawer of tools, and they are all super cutomized to support each tool perfectly. Quite a fait accompli. I’m assuming he just threw money at it to make it happen, such that it’s totally bespoke and not anything one can buy.
The ultimate organization though is no organization. Instead, each box has its own RFID tag or apple air tag, and you simply locate it through a search engine whenever you need it. That’s maybe too extreme though. However, it would be nice to have as a fall-back.
The batteries on those air tags last only one year. Changing all those batteries every year would be just not worth it, so there would need to be a better way.
A few years ago I cleaned out my small stuff (moving pains) and didn’t replenish so this was sort of a want more than need. These would be more practical for me as theres less space wastage.
Less space wastage compared to what?
Aside from reliance on those custom metal boxes, it looks pretty similar to gridifnity or Babo. Actually, more like Babo since there’s no grid per se.
The grid takes up a lot of space (can’t remember dimensions but around 5mm of layer height), I think it’s too bulky and could be a lot slimmer. Just my thoughts 
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You raise a good point. Something worth considering before I go all-in on whatever is next.
Its an ecosystem, most are fantastic but you have to commit to them. Its the beauty of 3d printing at least we have control over what kit we decide to make. My Wife was going to go the whole toolbox route with a namebrand system and printing Gridfinity was how I talked her round to my first X1C :)) In the end it didn’t impress her much, but I got to keep the printer ha!
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Zach Freedman is the guy, and gridfinity 2.0 was a bit of an April fools intro to a new open source game he was releasing called Hextraction.
https://www.playhextraction.com/who-did-this
It is a blast. I printed out the recommended starter tiles and some other fun ones along with the full game board with gutters. Everything is printed in PETG with a mix of Bambu and Sunlu filament. Gluing the board together was a bit of a pain - I found out the hard way that the 3DGloop PETG glue is nowhere as good as their PLA stuff. Had to reglue a bunch with regular super glue.
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