For the last few years, Walt and I have been using waxed cloth wrappers for our sandwiches instead of plastic bags. It’s a small way to reduce our waste, but drying them proved a bit challenging. Here’s the solution we came up with.

We don’t have a dishwasher, so we wash everything by hand. The sandwich wrappers ended up draped over all our water bottles and silver ware in the dish drainer. They were often still damp in the morning. We wanted to have a way to hang them up that didn’t interfere with access to the sink.

Having a 3D printer gave us an opportunity to make a simple holder for a drying rack. Our ideas were based on clothes drying racks that pull out from the wall. My parents have one that has several arms that pivot down from a point and spread out. We didn’t need anything that large but the idea was good.

We decided to use an extendable antenna like you would find on a radio and some clips to hang the wrappers. It took a couple of tries to make one that worked like we wanted.

Our first attempt was one where the antenna pivoted up and locked into place when it was not in use. Walt designed it on a computer drafting program and use our printer to make it. It mounted to the cabinet with a couple of screws. The antenna was attached with a screw just above the bottom screw.

The drying rack folded up flat against the cabinet when not in use. When in use, it worked fairly well, but it was hard to access the sink and our drinking water dispenser was behind where it hung. So it was time to come up with another option.

Drying Rack Mark 2

We thought the drying rack might work better if it would swing back and forth rather than up. So Walt went back to the computer and designed a different piece. He printed it and we mounted it on the cabinet. It use the same mounting holes but the antenna was fastened in the other direction.

When the rack is not in use, it folds up against the cabinet out of the way.

We can pull it out and hang the wrappers on the antenna when we need to dry some. Because it pivots front to back, I can swing it out of the way when I need too.

Some wrappers drying on the rack we made.

We use these wraps. No affiliation with the company as always.

Walt has written about another 3D printed project in his work on his backpacking rifle.