3D-Printed Roasting Thermometer Probe Organizer

Alton Brown's brought a lot to my life, including one of my favorite kitchen tools, the probe roasting thermometer. I use mine for everything: roasting meats, grilling, even baking salmon (absolutely foolproof, this). But it's brought one major annoyance to the kitchen too: that unruly tangle of probe and oven-proof braided wire left in your hand after cleaning up from the evening's roast. Now, in the list of things I should have done years ago I can finally include taming that snarl—with 3D printing, of course.

Here's a simple puck-shaped wire organizer I designed and printed in PLA plastic. Insert the probe end into its receptacle, secure the bend of the probe in its slot, then wrap the cable around the spool. Finally, plug the connector end into the top of the organizer to keep everything tidy.

This design works best with a bent probe like the one I have, of course, but you could probably use it with a straight one by just ignoring the slot. To work well it also depends on the wire being the right length; when I wrap it reasonably tightly the connector snaps into the right position, but with a different length you'd want the the connector slot at a different angle around the spool. That change is easy to make in the CAD document. As with most of my hobby projects I've built this in Onshape, so anyone can use and edit the design in their web browser. If you want to print this as-is instead, just download the STL I'm providing here:

One last feature: I designed the two holes on the top to accept strong magnets so that the probe organizer, like the thermometer itself, can be stuck on the side of the oven or microwave or refrigerator or whatever. There's a 12mm diameter by 3mm thick disc magnet epoxied into each hole, which is more than strong enough to keep the organizer secure.

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