Pinecil Bento — Stackable Soldering Case Organizer

Pinecil Bento

Pinecil Bento is a compact, stackable, easy-to-carry storage case for Pinecil soldering setups.

It is designed like a small bento box: each layer stores part of your soldering kit, so your Pinecil, tips, cable, and small accessories stay together instead of becoming a drawer full of loose parts.

Important printer compatibility note:
This model does not fit the A1 Mini build plate. It is close, but it does not fit as-is. It could potentially be split and glued together, but that is not included in this upload.

Why I made it

I wanted a case that was more useful than a simple tube or box. The Pinecil itself is small, but the full kit is not: tips, cable, stand, solder, caps, and small accessories quickly become messy.

Pinecil Bento keeps everything modular, visible, and easy to pack.

Features

• Stackable bento-style design
• Magnets keep the layers aligned and in place
• Separate storage areas for the Pinecil and accessories
• Compact footprint for desk, drawer, toolbox, or travel use
• Modular layout, so you can use only the layers you need
• Compatible with extendable accessories, such as a temporary hot iron holder
• Printable without complex assembly
• Designed for practical everyday soldering setups

Important safety note:
Always let the Pinecil cool down before closing or storing it inside the case.

The hot iron holder is intended for short-term use while soldering, not for storing the iron hot inside the case.

Suggested use

Use it as a desk organizer, travel case, repair-kit box, or compact soldering station storage.

Modules

This upload is the base Pinecil Bento kit.

I will upload separate models for more specialized cases and their external hardware requirements. I will list them here as they become available.

• Pinencil Bento — Desoldering Level & Holder Arm.  Available here. Stores a desoldering pump, desoldering wick, and adds a temporary hot iron holder arm to the stack.
• Pinecil Bento — Omnifixo Holder Level. Available here. Stores the Omnifixo OF-M4.4 magnetic feet and base plate.
• Compact Tip Cleaning Sponge Holder. Available here. — Smaller sponge-only insert for the base Bento setup.

Each module has its own model page, hardware list, print profile, and compatibility notes.

Accessories

• Compact Tip Cleaning Sponge Holder. Available here. This bento also can use a 3D printed sponge holder, rather than the one sold by Pinecil, specially if you are going to print the Iron Arm Bento Level, you are better off using the space for a sponge.

Hardware

Shared hardware

• 6 mm x 2.6 mm neodymium magnets
• Superglue for securing the magnets

The magnets should fit snugly with a bit of pressure, but a small drop of glue helps keep them secure over time.

Base lid

• 4x 6 mm x 2.6 mm magnets

Base box

• 8x 6 mm x 2.6 mm magnets
• 1x M2x4 thumbscrew

The M2x4 thumbscrew lets you manually disassemble or adjust the Pinecil tip. If you have not changed the original screw yet, this is a big quality-of-life improvement.

Base kit storage

• Pinecil
• Pinecil tips
• Pinecil holder with cleaning sponge or cleaning sponge.

Recommended material

PLA works well. I have been using my PLA cases for over two years.

PETG should also work well, especially if the case will be kept in a hot car, workshop, or tool bag.

This does not mean the Pinecil should be stored hot.
Always wait until it cools down before closing the case.

For now, I am focusing on PLA print profiles because that is what I have tested long-term. If there is interest, I can also provide PETG profiles.

Print notes

Most parts do not need supports. For some parts, I recommend supports touching the build plate only, mainly to keep the magnet holes clean.

I recommend printing with two colours. This makes it easier to distinguish fixed parts, such as the case, from moving parts, such as the solder spool or pivoting support.

For this reason, the print profiles are divided across different beds so they are easy to manage with a single extruder.

Magnet polarity disclaimer

Before gluing any magnets, check the polarity carefully.

For this model, all magnets should be installed with the same reference orientation:

• Case bottoms: south-facing side up
• Case tops: north-facing side up
• Lid: treated as a bottom, so install magnets with the south-facing side up

In other words:

Bottom-facing parts use south up. Top-facing parts use north up. The lid counts as a bottom.

Test the stack before applying glue. Incorrect magnet polarity may prevent the Bento layers from stacking correctly.

Compatibility

Designed around the Pinecil soldering iron.

Please check the photos and dimensions before printing if you use clones, silicone cables, third-party tips, or oversized accessories.

Feedback

If you print it, please post a make.

I am especially interested in seeing different kit layouts and colour combinations. I would love to see a pastel-colour setup.

Do you want to customize it?

Let me know in the comments if you would be interested in building your own Bento modules.

Future plans

If there is enough interest, I would like to open-source the Pinecil Bento system properly.

That would include:

• STEP files for the important contact surfaces
• A basic specification for compatible modules
• STEP files for the released models

The idea is to provide the tools and specifications needed so that any compatible case can work with any other compatible case.

For now, “Allow adaptations of your work to be shared” is set to No. This gives me time to manage the system properly before opening it up.