3D Printing

Keep your Subbuteo Team Organised

If anyone’s benefited from the world of domestic 3D printers, ingenious DIY tinkerers and problem solvers have definitely gotten a lot out of these making machines.

One in particular delved into the world of storage and packaging for a prized collection of game pieces.

What is Subbuteo?

Subbuteo is a form of tabletop soccer where players flick miniature soccer players with their finger to hit a ball into a goal.

These pieces are quite small and fragile on the top, so players tend to store their pieces in boxes with dividers. However, as demonstrated in the video, rectangular or square dividers still leave pieces to knock around, which keeps the pieces at risk of being damaged or the paint chipped.

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credit to sgabolab

The pieces are also a little hard to remove from the dividers too, as they’re small enough to hold the pieces, but not big enough for players to fit their fingers inside to remove the pieces.

The friend of fellow 3D printing enthausiast, who goes by the username Sgabolab, presented their problem, and Sgabolab set to work.

3D printing saves the day!

The box itself was already provided, but Sgabolab modelled an alternative divider shape which fit better with the shape of the Subbuteo pieces so they wouldn’t rattle around so much. They also modelled the edges so they would dip down, making it far easier for someone to pick out a piece using their fingers.

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credit to sgabolab

The dividers were modelled in blocks of 12, so any additional blocks of dividers could just be sat next to existing dividers neatly. Here they are all printed and placed in the box!

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credit to sgabolab

An additional piece was made to hold all other pieces needed in the set at once, saving both space and the amount of parts needed to keep everything organised. All that was added to the existing box other than these 3D pieces was a piece of foam to pad everything and hold the pieces in place, and a piece of felt to line the bottom of the box.

Quick, organised and easy, how storage should be!

Sgabolab will have the pieces available to buy very soon, so make sure to check them out here for any updates as well as the other projects they have underway!