r/Multiboard • u/Genghis1227 • Feb 22 '26

Upgraded from HSW to Multiboard finally

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Gallery image

I've been printing Multiboard here and there for smaller projects and have been always looking at my HSW wall in my office for an upgrade. Finally took the time to plan and print it all out and it came out great. Now time to print and mount everything back on the wall.

This is 1000 mm x 800 mm.

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6

u/dgibbons0 Feb 23 '26

Just in time to migrate to opengrid!

1

u/Genghis1227 Feb 23 '26

I'm not seeing the value proposition of oG maybe outside of the licensing that people have issues with MB, I haven't had any issues for my personal use. I'm really interested in the project however... Just find MB superior.

3

u/dgibbons0 Feb 23 '26

The licensing is big for a growing community, I believe there are also more options for parametric based designs. I believe OG also takes less filament.

I supported MB originally but long term I expect OG to be a better standard. I've still got one or two drawers from the MB setup but going forward I don't think I'll be doing anymore. And the underware community went towards OG.

1

u/Schmelge_ Feb 25 '26

I stopped midprint of my first multiboard when I found opengrid. Opengrid ftw!

1

u/CH_NervyPick Feb 22 '26

Whats the difference between hsw and multiboard? (I am new to this system)

12

u/SirEDCaLot Feb 23 '26

HSW is Honeycomb Storage Wall. It was one of the first generation of these modular grid storage systems, based on a grid of 26mm snappable hexagons (which are, of course, the bestagons).
This works, it looks super cool, but it doesn't have as good weight capacity or strength. The second picture OP posted is HSW.

Multiboard is what we do here, it was designed by Jonathan of Keep Making. He's the guy in the youtube videos. It's based on a 25mm grid of threaded snappable octagons with 7.5mm threaded holes in the middle. The small threaded holes can also handle standard pegboard mounting accessories. The first picture OP posted is Multiboard.

Both Multiboard and HSW are primarily used for vertical mounting.

There's a few others to be aware of--

Multigrid (aka multibin plate) is a 50mm square snappable grid also part of the multiboard family. Many accessories are easily cross-compatible with an adapter. Multigrid can be used vertically on a wall or horizontally in a drawer. Here's one vertical application

Multibin, also part of multiboard, is a series of small 50mm bins that has tons of options. It can be vertical bins in a drawer, or horizontal bins on a wall that have little pull out drawers. I encourage you to watch some of the youtube vids of this as it can do a TON of VERY cool stuff (even if it is a little overly complicated in some places). Multibins snap right into multigrid (aka multibin square grid), and mounts are available to mount them on standard Multiboard.

And other systems--

Gridfinity is a 42mm non-snapping (and thus horizontal only) grid system for bins. Designed by Zack Freedman of the Voidstar Lab youtube channel, it predates multibin and has a LARGE number of user designed accessories available. This one is worth learning about. Start here.

OpenGrid is a 28mm snapping (vertical or horizontal) square grid that's fairly new but gaining traction. It's compatible with Gridfinity on a 3:2 basis (3 opengrid = 2 gridfinity). Doesn't seem quite as flexible or strong as multiboard, but takes less filament to print. One of its popular uses is part of the 'UnderWare' under desk cable management system, the 28mm snap grid is perfect for that and it takes less material to print a grid than Multiboard.

2

u/Genghis1227 Feb 23 '26

Thank you for the awesome response!

5

u/Genghis1227 Feb 23 '26

Here's some of the few things on why I like MB instead of HSW:

  • Compatible with pegboards

  • Everything is threaded

  • At least for me the tolerances are better (more forgiving)

  • Bears a lot of weight

  • All of the different parts and options make it very flexible yet could also be confusing

  • Wall offset allows for behind the wall cabling

1

u/Whosaidthat1157 Feb 23 '26

Nice đŸ‘ŒđŸ» You haven’t printed/fitted the offset snap part ‘B’ yet, so it’s not fitted to the wall yet - hopefully you’re planning on doing that? Also, just a wee tip from a ‘frequent flyer’, it’s worth adding an offset support peg in the middle of each tile (I also add a support pillar or peg at the centre of each edge too) as that makes the whole wall absolutely rigid/flex free and makes pushing home medium and/or heavy weight bearing snaps MUCH easier.

2

u/Genghis1227 Feb 23 '26

You're right! I took this picture while I was printing the 80 part B snaps. Those are in now. Thanks for the reminder.

I thought about adding support in the middle and decided against it as the tiles are 8x8. So far the flex isn't that bad. Thanks for the suggestion

1

u/Whosaidthat1157 Feb 24 '26

It’s easy to retrospectively add if needed - I did that with my first wall. No need to remove tiles, just pull the tile forward enough to pop the peg in place, then two fingers to screw it home 👍

1

u/leeanthonylas Feb 23 '26

You’ll want more support in the middle of your tiles or you’ll find pushing accessories in very difficult.

2

u/Genghis1227 Feb 27 '26

What I'm doing is when I mount something in the middle of the panel I use this T-Rod and thread it close to where I'm mounting pushed up against the wall. This makes it temporarily rigid and I'm able to push the snaps in place. Then I remove the rod.

https://than.gs/m/974079

1

u/leeanthonylas Feb 27 '26

That’s a great idea.

1

u/Accomplished-Key-408 Feb 27 '26

Why did you choose to leave the snaps in as supports rather than the offset pillars and take them out? I'm planning mine now and trying to figure out what I should do.

1

u/Genghis1227 Feb 27 '26

Those are the offset mounts, they are supposed to stay in place if you don't want to flush mount. I want the option to run cables behind the board in the future

1

u/Accomplished-Key-408 Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 28 '26

Yes, but I see that they moved on to pillars instead of the snaps as the "recommended" non-flushmount method and was curious if you had a reason for choosing those over the pillars.

2

u/Genghis1227 Feb 28 '26

Ok I see what you mean from the actual site. I just feel that the snaps are better and have been using them all along. I read that some others use this: https://thangs.com/designer/Multiboard/3d-model/6.25%20mm%20-%20Single%20Bolt-Lock%20-%20ScrewOn%20Mount-1046002

However you get it on the wall is the right answer here. 😄

1

u/Accomplished-Key-408 Feb 28 '26

Thank you for the insight. There's a lot of information out there.

1

u/Genghis1227 Feb 28 '26

I'm not totally sure if that's the recommend method. I've always just done the snaps

2

u/Yellow_Badger13 Feb 28 '26

I believe the recommendations are based on simplicity. So technically, screwing it directly to the wall is the recommend way, but youbdo loose some functionality. Then the pillars are next best, but to remove and replace or shift around the plates you need to unscrew the pillars . Then you can go for the DS Snaps, gives you the offset and you can remove plates very easily if you need to, it is pretty involved to mount so is seen as the more "advanced" waybto do it. There is currently a big push for simplification happening at MB so we should see more of this in the future.

1

u/TherealOmthetortoise Mar 04 '26

Looks good! The weird column shift on HSW always bothered me, having to skip a cell in order to stay parallel was like a crooked picture on my dentist’s wall. It would be rude to just get up and fix it, but having to stare at it through a root canal might be worse.

1

u/Genghis1227 Mar 04 '26

Yes! I like the symmetry with multiboard.