Slide-Plate Name-Window Two-Bay Pen Cup

A stepped two-bay desk pen cup with a front window that shows a slide-in name plate, so one body fits any name or colour.

Date: 2026-11-11 Category: Desk and Tech Modeling difficulty: Beginner Estimated print: ~9 h total · ~185 g PLA (estimate) Suggested price: $14–$26 printed · $4 digital file (estimate) Status: Concept

Description

A box 100 mm wide and 88 mm deep with two bays. The rear bay is 95 mm tall for pens, pencils and scissors. The front bay is 60 mm tall and holds clips, a highlighter or sticky flags. On the front face a 70 × 20 mm window shows a name plate that drops into a channel from the top. Swap the plate and the cup is a gift for someone else, or a different colour accent on your own desk.

The body is plain rectangles, a shell, two pockets and a slot, which a beginner can model in an afternoon. The plate is a flat 80 × 50 mm tile with embossed text.

Why it sells

InsightAgent rates desk organizers and WFH accessories at $10–$55 with medium-high demand, lists "name pencil holders" as an August idea, and suggests targeting "home office gift" from October to December. These are qualitative ratings, not sales counts. eufymake names custom nameplates among Facebook Marketplace best-sellers and says personalised items are valued more because they show thought. A current Etsy multi-compartment pen holder was seen marked Star Seller at about $18 (price via search summary). The Elegoo guide is a seller-side overview of Etsy categories. The gap: most listings bake the name into the box, so each personalisation is a new print; here only the 14 g plate changes.

Who buys it

Home-office workers, students, teachers and the people buying them gifts from October to December. Etsy and local craft markets suit the printed cup; a file suits owners of a printer who want to batch-personalise.

Design overview

• Stepped body: rear bay 95 mm tall, front bay 60 mm tall, 2.4 mm walls, 3 mm floor.
• Front window 70 × 20 mm with the two upper corners chamfered 8 mm, so the bridge is 54 mm, not 70.
• Slide-in plate, 80 × 50 × 2.6 mm, sits in a channel open at the top and stands 3 mm proud for a finger grip.
• Embossed text 0.6 mm high on the plate sits inside the window recess, so nothing rubs.
• One feature that beats listed products: personalisation is a 14 g plate, not a reprint.

Dimensions

Parts list

Hardware and non-printed parts

None — fully printed.

Fits and tolerances

• Plate in channel: sliding fit, 0.15 mm per side in thickness (2.9 mm channel for a 2.6 mm plate) and 0.2 mm per side in width (80.4 for 80). The thickness gap is smaller than the usual 0.2 mm because the plate is thin and a looser gap lets it rattle.
• Embossed text: the plate sits at Y 1.35 to 3.95 in the channel, so its 0.6 mm text reaches Y 0.75, inside the 1.2 mm window recess and clear of the lip walls (window is 70 mm wide, text at most 64 mm).

Modeling guide

Origin: front-left-bottom corner of the bounding box (pad front face at Y = 0). +X right, +Y toward the back, +Z up.

Cup body

1. Sketch on XY: rectangle X 0 to 100, Y 40 to 88, corner radius 6. Extrude 95 (rear block).
2. Sketch on XY: rectangle X 0 to 100, Y 8 to 42, corner radius 6. Extrude 60 (front block).
3. Sketch on XY: rectangle X 5 to 95, Y 0 to 8. Extrude 50 (name pad).
4. Rear bay: pocket X 2.4 to 97.6, Y 42 to 85.6, from z = 95 down to z = 3.
5. Front bay: pocket X 2.4 to 97.6, Y 10.4 to 40, from z = 60 down to z = 3. The strip Y 40 to 42 stays as the divider.
6. Channel: on the pad top (z = 50) sketch X 9.8 to 90.2, Y 1.2 to 4.1. Cut down 47 to z = 3.
7. Window: on the front face (Y = 0) sketch X 15 to 85, Z 14 to 34 with the two upper corners chamfered 8 mm at 45°. Cut through Y 0 to 1.2.
8. Fillet the top rim edges 0.8 and the bottom edge 0.6.

Name plate (origin at the plate's front-left-bottom corner)

1. Sketch on XZ: rectangle 80 × 50. Extrude 2.6 in Y.
2. On the front face emboss text 0.6 high, bold sans-serif, cap height 8, centred horizontally at Z = 21 from the plate bottom. Up to 10 characters, strokes at least 1.2 wide.
3. Chamfer the top edge 0.4.

Print settings

Assembly

1. Drop the plate into the channel from the top, text facing the front.
2. Push it down to the channel floor; 3 mm stands proud for a finger grip.

Variants and upsells

• Widths 80 to 140 mm through cup_width.
• Plate colour sets: 6 plates in a pack.
• A single-bay version for a mug-size cup.
• Matching desk set: business-card holder and phone ledge sharing the same plate window.

Selling and distribution

Etsy and craft markets suit the printed cup, with name personalisation as the upsell. Printables and MakerWorld suit the file. Price from material (about 185 g PLA), machine time (about 9 h) and margin; the $14–$26 band is an estimate near the $18 listing seen. Sell the print and the file; use a commercial licence for the file if you charge for it.

Keywords: pen holder, personalized pen cup, desk organizer, name plate pencil holder, home office gift, teacher gift, 3D printed desk organizer, custom desk accessory, two compartment pen cup, office decor.

Risks and IP notes

• Window bridge over 54 mm can sag. Mitigation: chamfered corners and bridge cooling; raise the window top with a 10 mm arch if it still sags.
• Heavy at about 170 g for the body. Mitigation: 2.0 mm walls are allowed via the wall variable.
• Desk organizers are crowded on Etsy. Mitigation: the plate system and a six-plate pack.
• Do not include any brand, team or school logos on plates; keep text to personal names.
• Pen holders are not food-contact items; do not market as such.

Resource links

• Popular 3D printed items on Etsy (InsightAgent) — desk organizers $10–$55, name pencil holders, home-office gift window
• 23 best-selling 3D printed items (eufymake) — custom nameplates; personalised items valued more
• Best selling 3D things on Etsy (Elegoo) — seller-side overview of Etsy 3D-print categories
• Etsy multi-compartment pen holder listing — Star Seller at about $18 (price seen via search summary)