3d Printing a new Brush Holder

  Well, I have to say, I am pleased.  I have finally designed, printed and assembled my first 'thing' with my 3d Printer.  Oh, i have printed a lot of things that I downloaded, but this is the first object that I designed from the ground up.

  What is it?  Why it's a brush holder.  I had an older one I made from wood, but I always found it a bit... lacking.  Oh it worked just fine, but it only held a few brushes and it was kind of a kludge, all things being equal.

  So, off the Sketchup and Blender I went.  It took a while to knock the design up the way I wanted it, but in the end, it came out just the way I wanted it.

  What does it do?  It holds brushes when I am painting.  I have never been good at holding brushes in my hand for 2 and 3 brush blends, so this helps out there quite a bit.  It also holds the brushes horizontally while they dry.  While storing them in a cup is completely viable, I have heard from really good painters that storing them horizontally helps keep the water from building up in the ferule and causing premature rot and other bad things.

  I designed the ends with holes for nails or small screws, but I ended up gluing them to my base after all was said and done.  I also used offsets on each end so that you can 'stack' 2 or more of them to create even bigger holders.  I actually printed 4 of them so I could make a double stack.  I may make another for some other brushes I have around as well :)  Here is the whole thing in pictures;

 The finished, printed items.  Very nice even at normal resolution.  I didn't even think about fine resolution since printing 2 at a time was about an hour and forty five minutes.

   A side view, showing the way they interlock. 

   The wooden base that my wife and I knocked out.  Very easy, nice angle and comes apart for flat storage if I want to take my show on the road...

   The holders glued to the board...

   Primed with Rustoleum auto primer

   And painted metallic blue.  I should have used red so it would go faster.

  And the finished product.  Huzzah!!  13 brushes in a small space.