I have so many parts and tools scattered across my bench that it was starting to feel ridiculous. Between the Bambu Lab H2D printer, the xTool S1 laser, leftover screws, inserts, and bits from half-finished projects, finding anything took longer than it should. I finally decided to get organized and designed a stackable tray system made entirely of laser-cut plywood.
One of the main reasons I bought the xTool S1 was to cut down on the amount of plastic I was using. 3D printing is incredibly useful, but for larger organizational parts it is slow, material-heavy, and not always the most environmentally friendly option. Laser-cut plywood offered a faster, cheaper, and more sustainable alternative while still giving me a clean, professional-looking result.
Tray
I designed the entire system in Fusion 360 as a fully parametric model from day one. That decision turned out to be one of the smartest parts of the project. With a parametric approach I can change the internal dimensions, material thickness, or the number of interlocking teeth and the whole design updates automatically. Fusion’s parameter system is extremely powerful, but it does require careful planning. Every feature has to be driven by parameters so that scaling never breaks the geometry.
I started with a simple base square that acts as the reference for everything else. The sides are built using geometric patterns so the interlocking teeth stay evenly spaced no matter how the size changes. The key parameters control the internal width and depth, the material thickness, the number of teeth along each edge, and the internal height of the tray. Once those values are set, the rest of the model follows.
The trays are cut from 3 mm plywood with an internal dimension of 240 mm. That size feels practical — large enough to hold a useful amount of parts, yet still small enough to sit comfortably on my desk without dominating the space. 240 mm is also a convenient number because it divides cleanly by 2, 4, 6 and 8. That makes it easy to design matching containers in a range of sizes that still nest perfectly inside the tray.
Stack
The stack follows the same parametric logic as the tray. Its internal opening is 1 mm wider than the tray so the tray drops in with a light, positive fit. The height of the stack is slightly taller than the tray itself, giving just enough clearance for the next level. I switched to 6 mm plywood for the stacks. The extra thickness gives noticeably more strength and provides a larger contact surface for stacking, which improves stability once several levels are loaded with parts.
The stacking system itself is deliberately simple. Notches cut into each corner of the tray lock into corresponding features on the stack, keeping everything aligned. Once the trays have any real weight in them, the whole tower becomes very stable. No fancy clips or hardware are needed — gravity and the notches do the work.
Containers
The trays are designed to hold smaller 3D-printed containers so I can sort screws, inserts, tools, and other small items without everything mixing together. Different sizes can be mixed and matched while still fitting neatly inside the 240 mm footprint. I started with a basic 40 × 40 mm container using a 1.2 mm wall thickness, which equals three walls on a 0.4 mm nozzle. Each container is printed 0.1 mm undersize (39.9 mm in this example) so they slide in easily without binding.
Because my printer is carefully calibrated for dimensional accuracy, material shrinkage, and flow, the printed containers come out very close to the intended size. From experience, if those three settings are not dialed in, parts almost never fit as expected. Getting the printer right first made the whole system much more reliable.
Cutting and assembly
This is where a laser cutter really shows its strength. Cutting a full set of tray and stack parts on the xTool S1 takes only a couple of minutes. Assembly with a thin layer of wood glue took about five minutes once the pieces were cut. The same parts printed in plastic would have taken many hours and consumed far more material. The plywood version is both faster and cheaper, and it feels more substantial on the bench.
SNAFU moment
After the glue dried I placed the little containers into the tray… and they did not fit. Every container measured correctly, so the problem had to be the tray itself. Measuring the finished tray showed it was roughly 0.5 mm too small on the inside. The design in Fusion 360 and the dimensions shown in xTool Studio both looked perfect, which left me staring at a tray that was mysteriously undersized.
The problems (and the solutions)
Two separate issues were at play. First, I had forgotten to apply kerf compensation. Second, I had not verified the dimensional accuracy of the laser itself. Kerf is the material removed by the laser beam, and without compensating for it, parts come out slightly smaller than designed. After a quick calibration I found the S1 was also running a little off in scale. I set a kerf offset of 0.08 mm for the 3 mm plywood and applied a dimensional correction factor of 1.0015. The second set of parts came out exactly as intended. The trays now interlock more positively because of the kerf offset, and the internal dimension is a true 240 mm, so every container fits without force.
The stacks, cut with the same kerf and scale corrections, also fit perfectly and are just as quick to produce. Once again, the time saved compared with 3D printing these larger structural pieces is significant. The laser is simply the better tool for this kind of work.
Conclusion
Using Fusion 360’s parametric tools lets me change the size of the trays and stacks whenever I want and have the entire design update automatically. Getting the parameters right takes a bit of practice and careful thought about how features reference each other, but the payoff is worth it. I can now create different sizes of trays or stacks for specific needs without starting from scratch.
The bigger lesson, though, is about dimensional accuracy when combining parts made on different machines. A laser cutter and a 3D printer both need to be calibrated if the parts are expected to fit together. Once both machines are dialed in, the system works exactly as designed.
I now have a clean, expandable organization system that uses far less plastic than my previous attempts, takes minutes instead of hours to produce, and actually looks good on the bench. There is no longer any excuse for the mess.
SNAFU… but learning.
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