At a certain point, 3D printing shapes just for fun and novelty takes a back seat to utility.
I’ve been battling the accumulation of AA and AAA batteries for the various remotes, conference badges and other random gadgets in my life. For a while I kept them in an old empty checkbook box, then in a plastic box that once housed resistors, but finally I decided to do something useful and solve the problem.
I printed this lovely thing I found on Thingiverse. It’s much more stable than cardboard, and holds more than the plastic parts bin. No more random batteries rolling off the desk and onto the hardwood floor. Now I feel like I should print another one, in another color maybe — one for fresh alkaline batteries, and a separate dual container for to-be-charged rechargeables.
Total cost of printing, I’m going to guess around $2 worth of PLA plus electricity.