Faceted Ballast Bookend Set

What it's for

A mirrored pair of geometric L-bracket bookends featuring a faceted, crystalline exterior and perfectly flat inner faces for supporting books. Built to solve the issue of paperbacks toppling on shelves, each bookend contains a continuous internal cavity. This allows the finished print to be weighted with sand, coins, or metal shot through a bottom access hole, providing mass without requiring dense infill.

Dimensions

• Overall size (per bookend): 100 mm wide, 120 mm deep, and 130 mm tall.
• Fill port: 24 mm tapered bore with a 27.5 mm recessed seating flange.
• Plugs: Tapered friction-fit caps with a standard coin-turn slot for securing the base.

Print notes

• Print the main bookends with generous perimeter walls (at least 3-4 shells) to confidently contain fine, shifting ballasts like sand.
• No supports are strictly necessary if your printer bridges well, as the internal cavity roofs are sloped.
• Print the tapered plugs separately to ensure accurate tolerances for the friction fit.

Assembly

Pour sand or drop coins through the bottom seat until the internal chamber is heavily packed. Insert the included plug and use a small coin in the slot to twist and drive the taper until flush with the base.

Remix ideas

• Modify the bottom plug to use printed threads instead of a friction fit for an absolute seal.
• Scale the internal cavity up or down to perfectly capture standard hardware sizes, like large hex nuts or steel rods.
• Increase the severity of the facet angles on the cutting block modules to create a sharper, glass-like aesthetic.