50+ Cool Things to 3D Print in 2025: From Fun Gadgets to Practical Life-Hacks

You've opened your new 3D printer, carefully adjusted the bed, and successfully printed the test files. The excitement is real. But then comes the big question: "Now what?" Having a machine that can create almost anything can feel overwhelming. What are some cool things to 3D print that are actually worth your time and materials?

You've come to the right place. We've spent many hours printing, testing, and improving, and we've put together the best list of ideas for 2025. This guide is full of genuinely cool, fun, and useful ideas. We'll cover everything from quick and satisfying prints to practical home improvements that solve real problems. We'll also explore projects that help you learn new skills and even show you how to start creating your own designs. Let's find your next great print.

Quick-Start Instant Prints

Sometimes you just want to see your printer create something awesome without spending multiple days on it. This list is for instant satisfaction. These projects are popular for a good reason: they're fairly fast, show off the magic of 3D printing, and feel incredibly satisfying when you remove them from the build plate.

The Quick Print List

1. Articulated Flexi-Toys
   These print-in-place models, like dragons or octopuses, have moving joints straight off the printer. They are a fantastic way to test your printer's accuracy and get a moving toy in one go.

2. Self-Watering Planter
   A simple two-part print that looks great on any desk or windowsill. It's a functional design that uses a wicking system to keep your plants happy, combining good looks with usefulness.

3. Collapsible Basket
   This is a design wonder. It prints as a flat disc but cleverly unfolds into a functional basket or bowl, perfect for holding fruit or small items. It's a great conversation starter.

4. Headphone Stand
   Stop throwing your expensive headphones on the desk. A sleek, simple stand is a quick print that instantly organizes your space and gives your gear a proper home.

5. Cable Management Clips
   Solve the universal problem of cable mess behind your desk or TV. These small clips print in minutes and can be customized to fit any cable thickness, bringing order to your digital life.

6. Phone Stand with Amplifier
   This clever print holds your phone at the perfect viewing angle while naturally making its sound louder. No electronics needed—just smart acoustic design to boost the volume for music or calls.

7. Bag Clip
   A genuinely useful kitchen gadget that's often stronger and more effective than store-bought versions. Print a few in different sizes and colors to keep your snacks fresh.

8. Miniature Figurines
   Dive into the world of tabletop gaming or display your fandom. You can find amazing characters from popular sci-fi, fantasy, and anime genres to test your printer's detail abilities.

9. Custom Cookie Cutter
   Personalize your baking for a holiday, party, or just for fun. You can easily find or create cutters in any shape you can imagine, adding a unique touch to your kitchen creations.

10. Lithophane Photo
    This is pure magic. A lithophane is a 3D print of a photo that only shows the image when lit from behind. It's a beautiful, personalized gift that never fails to impress.

Practical Prints for Your Life

3D printing is more than a hobby for making toys; it's a powerful tool for practical problem-solving. This section focuses on functional prints that organize your space, improve daily workflows, and enhance or replace everyday objects. It's about making your life easier, one print at a time.

For Your Desk and Office

• Under-desk drawer: Reclaim unused space by printing a slim, sliding drawer. It's perfect for adding hidden storage for notebooks, pens, and other small items, keeping your desktop clean.
• Laptop Stand: Improve your work-from-home setup with a custom-height laptop stand. Printing one ensures it fits your device and viewing angle perfectly, reducing neck strain.
• Monitor Shelf: Raise your screen to eye level and create valuable storage space underneath for your keyboard or dock. Many designs are modular, allowing you to add small drawers or compartments.
• SD Card & USB Holder: Stop losing tiny, important media. A compact, custom organizer keeps all your SD cards, microSD cards, and USB drives neatly arranged and accessible.
• Stream Deck / Macro Pad Housing: For the tech-savvy, printing a custom case for a DIY macro pad or a commercial device like a Stream Deck allows you to create a personalized command center for your workflow.

For the Kitchen and Home

• Modular Spice Rack: Design a spice rack that fits your exact drawer or cabinet dimensions. Modular designs allow you to expand your collection over time without needing a whole new system.
• Custom Drawer Dividers: Finally, you can have perfectly organized drawers. Measure your drawer, model some simple dividers, and print a solution that is perfectly tailored to your utensils or junk drawer items.
• Paper Towel Holder: From wall-mounted versions to clever one-handed-tear designs, a printed paper towel holder can be more functional than what you find in stores.
• Shopping Bag Handle: Make carrying heavy groceries more comfortable with an ergonomic handle that distributes the weight evenly. It's a small print that saves your hands.
• Toothpaste Squeezer: Get every last drop out of the tube with this simple but effective gadget. It's a quick and satisfying print that reduces waste.

Pro Tip: For kitchen items that may come into contact with food, we recommend printing with a filament like PETG, which is often rated as food-safe. Always check your specific filament's safety data sheet and consider applying a food-safe sealant for items that will have prolonged contact.

For the Workshop and Garage

• Battery Dispenser: Keep your AA and AAA batteries organized and ready to go. Gravity-fed dispensers are a popular project that is both fun to watch and extremely practical.
• Wrench & Screwdriver Organizers: Print custom holders for your specific toolset. This ensures a perfect, snug fit that generic organizers can't match, making it easy to see if a tool is missing.
• Pegboard Accessories: The maker community has designed countless hooks, bins, and holders for pegboards that are often stronger and more specialized than store-bought options.
• Drill Bit Index: Create a custom case for your most-used drill bits. You can size each hole perfectly and even add labels for quick identification, saving time on any project.

Prints That Build Your Skills

The coolest prints aren't just objects; they are learning experiences. Intentionally choosing projects that challenge you is the fastest way to master 3D printing. This approach elevates the hobby from simply downloading files to truly understanding the craft.

Mastering the Fundamentals

• Calibration and First Layers: Start here. Calibration cubes, temperature towers, and bed-leveling tests might not look "cool," but a perfect, squished first layer is the foundation for every amazing print that follows. Mastering these teaches you the language of your printer.
• Simple Shapes and Accuracy: Printing objects like boxes, containers, or simple replacement parts is a lesson in dimensional accuracy. This is how you learn to check if your printed 20mm cube is actually 20mm, a crucial skill for making parts that fit together.
• Overhangs and Bridging: Look for models with moderate overhangs, like the chin on a bust or the arches of a miniature building. These teach you the limits of your printer's cooling and how far it can print horizontally into thin air (bridging) before you need to use supports.

Tackling Complex Challenges

• Print-in-Place Mechanisms: Articulated toys or models with integrated gears are an excellent challenge. What you'll learn is the critical importance of tolerances—the tiny gap between moving parts. Printing these successfully teaches you to fine-tune your retraction and flow settings to prevent parts from fusing together. We've found that a clearance of 0.3mm is a good starting point for many printers, but you will need to experiment to find what works for your machine.
• Using Supports Effectively: It's time to print that complex miniature or intricate sculpture with large overhangs. What you'll learn is how to orient a model on the build plate to minimize the need for supports. You'll also dive into your slicer's support settings, learning to create supports that are strong enough to work but easy to remove, leaving a clean surface behind.
• Multi-Part Assemblies: Take on a project that requires assembly with screws, bolts, or glue, like a large prop or a mechanical device. What you'll learn is how to design for fit and function. This process of printing individual components and seeing them come together into a larger, more complex object is one of the most rewarding experiences in 3D printing.

Your Guide to Custom Prints

Downloading a model is fun, but modifying it or creating your own is a game-changer. The ultimate "cool" print is one that is uniquely yours, designed to solve your specific problem or express your personal style. This is where 3D printing's true power is unlocked.

The Coolest Print is Yours

Think about it: a drawer organizer that fits your odd-sized drawer perfectly, a keychain with your name on it, or a phone case with a logo you designed. These are things that no one else has. They represent the peak of what this technology offers—moving from a consumer of things to a creator of solutions. You don't need to be an engineering expert to get started.

Your First Step into CAD

The idea of 3D design can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. We highly recommend starting with free, browser-based CAD (Computer-Aided Design) software. Think of these tools as digital building blocks. They are designed for beginners, with intuitive interfaces that let you combine and subtract shapes, add text, and make simple modifications without a steep learning curve. These programs are the perfect entry point for personalizing your prints.

Easy First Custom Projects

• Personalized Keychain: This is the classic first project. Start by creating a simple base shape, like a rectangle or circle. Use the text tool to add your name or initials, extrude it so it's raised, and export the new model. You've just made your first custom object.
• Custom Box: Find a basic box model online or design a simple one yourself. The first customization is to add text or a simple logo to the lid. This teaches you how to align objects and combine them into a single printable file.
• Modifying an Existing Model: This is a powerful skill. Import an existing STL file that you downloaded. Maybe you need to add a mounting hole to a bracket or resize a part for a perfect fit. Making small tweaks like this is an easy way to adapt community models to your specific needs.

Choosing the Right Material

The "coolness" of a print isn't just its shape, but also its function and feel. Choosing the right filament is crucial for success. A PLA dragon is great, but a flexible TPU phone case is a different kind of magic. This quick-reference guide will help you match the material to your project.

Filament Quick-Reference

Go Make Something Awesome

We've journeyed from quick, satisfying toys to life-hacking practical upgrades, from skill-building challenges to the first steps of creating your own unique designs. The world of 3D printing is vast, but it's not impossible to navigate. Every print, whether it's a simple clip or a complex assembly, is a step forward on your maker journey.

The central idea is this: what are some cool things to 3D print is something that solves a problem for you, makes you smile, or teaches you something new. It's the object that makes you say, "I made this." The possibilities are truly as endless as your imagination. So, warm up your printer, pick an idea from this list that excites you, and start making something amazing today.