Milk Crate Bookshelf Connector

thingiverse

Got some milk crates lying around? With this connector you can create a milk crate bookshelf! Maybe you've got the mortgage covered, but you're still waiting to inherit the bookshelves that your Boomer parents bought in the 80s for their printed encyclopedias. Why settle for an empty house when you can enjoy beautiful milk crate shelving right now! The best part is, if you have to leave in a hurry, your books are already packed! Just apply a bit of force to pull the crates off the connectors, turn them right side up, stack them in your dairy truck, and you're off! A lovingly crafted milk crate bookshelf also makes a perfect gift. It will hardly cost you anything (assuming no supply chain crisis is affecting the price of milk crates that week). And no one can throw it away without feeling guilty. As we all know, milk crates are designed to stack vertically. You can stand on top of them and jump up and down, but you can't pull your books out! However, if you face them forward, the crates don't lock together at all, and they tend to slide around. The standard practice for solving this problem is to use zip ties. But do you seriously think one of your friends will ever point to a piece of furniture held together with zip-ties and ask, "Whoa, where can I get one of these?” Fat chance. You need to ditch the zip ties and print yourself some badass connectors. Remember, If you stack milk crates on their sides and overload them, perhaps by filling them with bottles of milk, they could, in theory, fall forward like an Ikea dresser with two drawers open. (Ikea absolves itself from liability by telling you to fasten the dresser to the wall with their ridiculous little clip. So I’ll say it too: Just fasten this thing to the wall somehow with that ridiculous little clip you have left over from your Ikea dresser.) PRINTING: I used PLA with 30% infill (octet). You can easily fit dozens of these little guys on a single build plate. They shouldn't challenge the printer. Each milk crate junction requires 4 connectors, one at each corner. (in case that's not obvious). Milk crate designs do vary somewhat in the placement of the ribs, so these are small for wider compatibility. Print one as a test to make sure the design fits the ones you have.