Adafruit's 3DThursday Highlights Support-Free Sticky Note Mini Paper Tray

Flipping a model on its back before slicing is one of those small decisions that separates a frustrating print from a clean one. D3signLane's Sticky Note Mini Paper Tray turns that principle into a concrete desk object: a four-tier organizer sized for standard Post-it pads, with each shelf running 79 × 76.2 × 12mm and the full structure reaching 65mm tall, and it prints support-free because the whole piece lies flat on its back.

Adafruit's #3DThursday series highlighted the model on March 26, adding it to the steady roster of practical, approachable prints that the weekly feature has been surfacing for years. D3signLane describes the mechanic plainly: "it prints on its back in 1 piece, so no supports are needed at all."

Two print profiles on MakerWorld spell out the tradeoff directly. The designer's recommended settings use 0.2mm layer height, 2 perimeter walls, and 8% infill, finishing in 2.8 hours on a single plate. A second profile labeled "Quicker & Less filament" steps up to 0.22mm layers, drops to 1 wall, and holds infill at 10%, finishing in 1.5 hours. Both sit on one plate, and neither requires touching support settings.

The geometry is worth understanding because it applies to a whole category of desk objects. Printing face-up with the back on the bed means each shelf's underside rests on the tier below it in the build stack. The spans involved are well within PLA bridging distance at standard print speeds, and there are no overhangs deeper than the shelf lip. What would require a full support lattice standing upright resolves to clean, uninterrupted layers lying down. That test, whether a model has a flat back face that converts all its overhangs into bridging distance, is a reliable first check for any desk organizer claiming to be support-free. If it doesn't pass that check, the "no supports" label usually means "no supports if you crank the overhang angle threshold and hope."

The model has earned 5.0 stars from 71 ratings on MakerWorld, with 3,967 downloads and 1,213 boosts. A perfect score held across 71 independent prints on different machines and filaments is unusual for any structural model with overhangs. It means the geometry is genuinely forgiving, not just clean under ideal conditions.

D3signLane calls it "a darling gift for a teacher, office worker, or student," and the faster profile makes batch printing straightforward: three copies back-to-back take 4.5 hours. Each shelf fits any standard 3 × 3-inch Post-it pad, so the finished print is immediately usable without hunting down compatible supplies.

For anyone mid-calibration, the tray also works as a functional bridging diagnostic. Four consecutive spans at uniform depth give a clear read on whether cooling and speed settings are properly tuned. A clean result on all four tiers means those settings are ready for longer, more demanding jobs; a failed bridge on tier three tells you exactly what to address before committing to a multi-hour print.