Brickfinity - LEGO Storage for IKEA ALEX Drawers

About Brickfinity

Brickfinity is a Gridfinity-inspired solution for Ikea ALEX storage units. It's specifically sized for the 6-drawer wide ALEX unit (804.854.23). Because it's sized uniquely, Brickfinity is not compatible with Gridfinity (though I'm sure one could remix/scale some Gridfinity designs to fit).

Brickfinity is based on a 60mm grid, which maximizes the available space in an ALEX drawer. A full layout in a drawer will be 10 units wide and 7 units deep. The height of Brickfinity bins occupies the full height of the upper 3 “short” drawers in an ALEX unit, and thus, Brickfinity is much less useful if you haven't modified your ALEX drawers to fully extend. I suggest modifying them using this technique. I've also thinned out the walls to land on a fast option for printing that's still relatively strong. Bins include an “easy grab" rounded bottom, and a label slot for Tom Alphin's label system that's also handy for pulling bins out of drawers. I've created a half-height bin that is useful for storing large amounts of small quantities. If you filled a full drawer with half-height bins, you'd be storing 140 unique elements!

Brickfinity is measured in width (generally 1 or 2) x depth (1 - 5) x height (1 or 2) in whole numbers. A height of 1 corresponds to the half-height bins, so keep that in mind.

Grids

There are two options for full coverage within a drawer - 10 wide x 7 deep.

Grid Option 1 (sized for common 256x256x256 mm printers)

• 2x3 (1x)
• 2x4 (1x)
• 3x4 (2x)
• 4x4 (2x)

Grid Option 2 (sized for large format printers)

• 2x5 (2x)
• 5x5 (2x)

Bins

Generally speaking, I'm using the 1x1x2, 1x2x2, and 2x2x2 options the most. Since Brickfinity is modeled for the furniture, and not the other way around, the sizing is a bit unfortunate for common elements like 8x8 plates. In order to store a 32L axle, you'd want to print a 1x5 bin. I also find myself frequently using 1x1x1 half-height bins for minifigure utensils or for quick sorting. I print all half-height bins in a different color so that I'm aware there's something underneath them when looking at a drawer.

I've also included one model for a 2x3x1 half-height drawer with dividers to create 15 compartments. I use 2x of these stacked for elements like letter tiles.

Important note: for double-wide drawers, I had overhang issues on the angled label slot using my P1S, unless I set the layer height to 0.24mm. I found that infill density didn't matter.

Source / OnShape 

A parametric OnShape file for the base and bins that you can copy to create your own designs is available here. Many thanks to /u/cram42 for the original parametric Gridfinity file.

I've also created a parametric OnShape file for the divider bins available here. You could use this to create bins of different sizes with a unique number of dividers.

And, of course, a massive thank you to Zach Freedman for all of his work on the Gridfinity system.

Printing Tips

I've printed grids using a Elegoo Neptune 4 Max and an Ender 5 Plus. I've printed bins using an Elegoo Neptune 4 Max, Ender 5 Plus, Ender 3 S1, and a BambuLab P1S. I'm by no means a 3D printing expert, but my general settings are:

• Filaments: eSun PLA+, Sunlu PLA+, BambuLab PLA Basic
• Nozzle size: 0.6mm
• 2 wall loops, 3 bottom layers, 3 top layers
• 10% infill, lightning pattern
• No brim or support
• Layer height: 0.3-0.4mm (caveat that for wide drawers, consider 0.24mm layer height if you see overhang issues on the label)