The Arch - Portable Hard Drive Stand

thingiverse

I have a growing collection of external, portable hard drives. As of yesterday they were lying flat in a mess on the top of my computer case. I figured it would be so much nicer if I could stand them up so they would take up less space. So last night I designed a stand that would hug the drive(s) and stand stably upright. I used calipers to measure the four drive types I currently have, and began work. I cut each shape from a standard arch shape that I quite like, and test-printed them until they fit nicely. For the moment (and this list will likely grow) I have arch stands for: Western Digital 1TB Passport Western Digital 250gB Passport (slightly slimmer) Western Digital original Passport (the slightly trapezoidal one) Seagate Free Agent 500gB Download the file(s) you need and print. It will print support under the arch, but it's easy to remove. Feel free to use stick-on rubber feet if your drive is in a place where slippage is likely. NOTE: I intend to print a single stand that will accommodate all four of my current drives (and print more as I get more drives) but I couldn't do it presently because my printer's bed heating element failed and I can't print large surface areas without warping. I'll get that fixed, and report back later. If it's useful, I may upload the template shapes and the base arch, so you can cut your own shapes out and build your own multi-stand based on your own combination of various drives. Comment if you think that would be helpful. Instructions I just created a cylinder, extruded it into a solid doughnut, flattened the sides of the inner edge, then used a lattice to curve the sides. I then removed the bottom part of the "doughnut" (sorry, I will NOT call it a donut) for a basic arch shape. Next I used calipers to measure the width and contours of each of my portable drives, and modeled solid shapes that would mimic the drive. Then I used that to Boolean Subtract the shape, and printed each one. I made adjustments until each drive fit snugly but not too tightly into its holder. You should be able to lift the drive and the stand should come with it. The drive should not slip out on its own.