I am pleased to release my very first original design! With back-to-school time upon us, I wanted to make some fun 3D printed notebooks for my six-year-old daughter to practice writing. This project started as an exercise in learning OpenSCAD, but rapidly evolved into an obsessive quest to solve some of the usability challenges I have encountered with other notebook designs.  My specific goals included:

• Flat, thin cover for a slim profile and filament-efficient print.
• Cover printed face-up to allow for vector artwork to be layered on top.
• Sturdy hinges that would not easily break when being lugged around by a child.
• Secure reloadable binding using only 3D printed parts (i.e., no elastic bands).
• Modular components that can be easily swapped out if one small part breaks.

Designing with all these goals in mind was quite a challenge!  My first obstacle was the conflict between cover thickness and hinge sturdiness.  The hinges need to be much thicker than 2mm, which makes them awkward to integrate directly into the cover.  Other 3D printed notebooks have solved this problem by increasing the cover thickness around the hinge and rounding/chamfering the surface, but this makes it harder to customize with vector artwork. After experimenting with quite a few test prototypes, I designed a clip-on hinge that clamps around the edge of the cover and remains secure using an internal rabbit ear clip. To assemble, attach the hinges to the cover, then align them with spine hinges and run a piece of filament through the holes. Detailed assembly instructions can be found in the included PDF.

Paper binding was the second challenge that required innovation. I have tried some of the 3D printed notebooks that use elastic bands, which are a clever solution, but they do not always hold the paper securely in place. To this end, I designed a 3D printed binding that snaps on and holds the paper firmly in a recessed slot in the spine. This involved a lot of test prints to dial in the tolerances so that the binding remains secure, but can still be removed for convenient paper loading/unloading.

Cover Designs

Five cover designs are included: a hexagonal pattern (basically mandatory), a geometric spiral (for me), a heart (for my daughter), a flower pattern (for my wife), and confetti (for funsies).  Note that all cover designs were created using only publicly available vector artwork that have no restrictions on use, modification, or distribution.

I have also included a print profile with a blank cover that you can use to customize your own cover by adding text, vector artwork, or even Hueforge models. Negative parts are already included to subtract away any geometry from the areas where the hinge clips attach.

Printing Instructions

Each print profile contains the models for two notebook sizes. Beds 1-3 correspond to the mini notebook, which fits a small stack of half-letter paper (5 1/2 x 8 inches). Beds 4-6 contain the large notebook that fits letter paper (8 1/2 x 11 inches).  In both cases, the paper needs to be folded in half to form a booklet.

The notebooks should also work with A-series paper if you trim the dimension that is longer than letter size.  For the mini notebook, trim 8mm in width from A5 paper so that it is approximately 140x210mm.  For the large notebook, trim 17mm in length from A4 paper so that it is approximately  210x280mm. I am also open to creating additional notebook variants for other paper sizes if there is sufficient interest. Please leave a comment with your feedback!

Filament requirements are only 99g for the mini notebook and approximately 180g for the notebook, plus whatever is needed to print the pattern on top of the cover, which can vary depending on the design.

The models are printed without supports. The hinge clips need to be printed vertically, and painted mouse ear brims have been added to improve adhesion. If you are worried about them dislodging during the print, you can change them to full brims, but note that this will be more tedious to remove from the interior edges of the clip.

Filaments

My example prints used the following filaments:

• Hex - Panchroma Matte Cotton White, Flashforge Abyssal Red
• Spiral - Flashforge Nebula Purple, Panchroma Matte Cotton White
• Heart - Sunlu Beige Skin, Flashforge Rose Quartz, Flashforge Abyssal Red
• Flowers - Panchroma Matte Cotton White, Panchroma Matte Muted Purple, Panchroma Matte Muted Blue, Sunlu Olive Green
• Confetti - Panchroma Matte Cotton White, Panchroma Matte Muted Purple, Panchroma Matte Muted Blue, Sunlu Magenta

Please note that I do not recommend using silk PLA on the binding or hinge clips, because is it structurally weak compared to other forms of PLA.  That said, I did use silk PLA for the spine and cover of one of my test prototypes, and so far it has held up pretty well.

License

I am releasing this model under an open license to encourage creators to build upon this work. Remixing is allowed as long as the new model is distributed under the same license and a link to the original design is included.  Commercial use is also permitted with attribution.