Alex Drawer Gridfinity
IKEA ALEX drawer units are a favorite target for gridfinity conversions, and this planner exists for exactly that job. Type your drawer's inner width and depth, set a safety margin per side, and the alex drawer gridfinity planner converts the numbers into a whole-cell plate on the community 42 mm grid — then splits anything too big for the print bed into numbered pieces you download as one ZIP. That is the whole alex drawer gridfinity workflow: measure, grid, split, print.
Two reference presets are built in: the ALEX 5-drawer at roughly 296 × 522 mm of interior, and the 9-drawer at roughly 369 × 522 mm. They are starting points, not guarantees — drawer interiors vary by batch and year, so the planner always asks you to confirm with your own tape measure before trusting any alex drawer gridfinity grid.
The math is transparent. At 0.5 mm margins per side, the 5-drawer reference interior lands on a 7 × 12 grid — a 294 × 504 mm plate of 84 cells that no 220 mm bed can print whole. The alex drawer gridfinity planner therefore splits it into six bed-sized pieces, each kept on the same 42 mm grid, and packs them into a ZIP with an assembly README. Six pieces sounds like a lot until you hold them: the finished alex drawer gridfinity floor still assembles in minutes.
Why ALEX drawers and gridfinity fit so well together
An ALEX drawer is shallow, wide and square-sided — ideal terrain for a 5 mm baseplate that is held by geometry alone. An alex drawer gridfinity conversion needs no modification to the furniture: the plate sits on the drawer floor, bins click on top, and the whole layout lifts out if you ever want the drawer back. With about 296 mm of width to work in, the 42 mm pitch wastes almost nothing, which is what makes alex drawer gridfinity planning feel almost mechanical.
ALEX drawer gridfinity presets are reference, not gospel
The numbers below come from community measurements and match most units, but interiors drift a few millimeters between production runs and years. The alex drawer gridfinity planner therefore treats presets as editable starting values: pick one, then replace width and depth with your own measurements and let the margin field absorb tape-measure optimism. An alex drawer gridfinity preset saves typing, never measuring.
| Preset | Reference interior | Margin per side | Computed grid | Plate size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALEX 5-drawer | ~296 × 522 mm | 0.5 mm | 7 × 12 cells | 294 × 504 mm |
| ALEX 9-drawer | ~369 × 522 mm | 0.5 mm | 8 × 12 cells | 336 × 504 mm |
ALEX drawer gridfinity math, worked on the 5-drawer
Width: 296 mm minus two 0.5 mm margins leaves 295 mm, and 295 ÷ 42 = 7.02, so seven cells across print 294 mm with about a millimeter to spare. Depth: 522 − 1 = 521, and 521 ÷ 42 = 12.4, so twelve rows print 504 mm and leave roughly 18 mm of slack — enough for a finger gap at the back. That is the entire alex drawer gridfinity calculation: measure, subtract the margins, divide by 42, keep the whole cells. Run the same alex drawer gridfinity logic on the 9-drawer and it yields 8 × 12 — 368 usable mm clear eight cells with about 33 mm left over.
From ALEX drawer gridfinity numbers to a split ZIP
- 1
Measure the drawer
Inner width and inner depth at the narrowest point — drawers are not always square, so measure at two depths and trust the smaller number.
- 2
Pick a preset or go custom
Start from the 5-drawer or 9-drawer reference, then overwrite the fields with your own tape-measure values.
- 3
Set the margin
The safety margin per side — 0.5 mm is what turns the reference 5-drawer into a clean 7 × 12.
- 4
Read the grid and the split plan
The planner shows the cells used, the millimeters left over, and how many pieces the plate becomes on your bed.
- 5
Download the ZIP
Numbered pieces plus an assembly README, generated locally — print them in one sitting so color and orientation match.
Splitting: never scale an ALEX drawer gridfinity plate
A 7 × 12 plate is 294 × 504 mm — far beyond a 220 × 220 bed. Resist the urge to scale the STL down to fit: every dimension of the community standard would shrink with it, the 42 mm pitch dies, and nothing clicks together anymore. The alex drawer gridfinity planner splits instead. With 2 mm of bed edge, a 220 mm bed fits at most 5 × 5 cells per piece, so the 7 × 12 plate becomes six numbered pieces that each keep the full-size grid and tile back together edge-to-edge. Split, never scale — that is the one alex drawer gridfinity rule worth memorizing.
The ZIP carries every piece plus an assembly README repeating the print order and orientation. Print all pieces in the same material and orientation, then lay them side by side — the 42 mm grid continues seamlessly across the joints, which is what makes an alex drawer gridfinity floor feel like a single plate.
Assembling an ALEX drawer gridfinity layout
- Print the plate pieces first and dry-lay them in the empty drawer before printing a single bin — the split plan lists the order.
- Check that the leftover margins land where you expected; a wrong measurement costs six small reprints, not a drawer full of bins.
- Fill the grid by contents: 2U bins for small parts, 4U for hand tools, taller only where the drawer lid allows.
- Leave a few cells empty on purpose — a layout you can rearrange beats one that is full, because tool collections grow.
- Reprint pieces, never re-scale them — every alex drawer gridfinity fix is one numbered piece away.
Once the plate is down, the drawer behaves like any gridfinity surface: bins, dividers and a socket organizer for round tools all share the same 42 mm geometry. An alex drawer gridfinity layout is never finished, only current — regenerate a piece whenever the contents change, and reprint just that piece.
Common alex drawer gridfinity mistakes
- Trusting an alex drawer gridfinity preset blindly — the reference interiors are close, but yours is the only drawer that matters.
- Scaling a 7 × 12 STL down to a small bed instead of splitting it — the pitch is the system; protect it.
- Forgetting the margin field in the alex drawer gridfinity planner, then wondering why a theoretically perfect grid prints a hair too wide.
- Measuring the drawer with the runners misaligned — open it fully, measure twice, enter once.
Sources & references
“Gridfinity storage is built on a 42 mm square grid with 7 mm height units” — the community-maintained open specification this site implements and cross-checks against.
- Gridfinity community specification— the community-maintained geometry specification our models implement
- Gridfinity reference documentation— profile reference used to verify the foot, lip and socket dimensions
- Gridfinity Rebuilt (OpenSCAD)— open-source reference implementation we cross-check generated geometry against
Frequently Asked Questions
Are the ALEX drawer gridfinity presets exact?
No. The 296 × 522 and 369 × 522 mm interiors are community reference values; batches and years differ. Measure your own drawer and enter those numbers — the presets only pre-fill the fields, and real alex drawer gridfinity numbers come from your tape measure.
Why does my alex drawer gridfinity plate arrive as six pieces?
A 7 × 12 plate is 294 × 504 mm, and a 220 mm bed with 2 mm edges fits at most 5 × 5 cells per piece. Splitting an alex drawer gridfinity plate on the same 42 mm grid keeps every piece compatible instead of shrinking the standard.
Can I use the planner for non-ALEX drawers?
Yes. The tool is a general drawer-to-grid converter; the alex drawer gridfinity presets are just convenience. Any square-sided drawer, tray or cabinet opening works — measure it and the same math produces the grid.
What is in the ZIP download?
One numbered STL per piece, plus an assembly README. The pieces share the 42 mm grid, so the alex drawer gridfinity floor realigns edge-to-edge when placed back in the drawer.