About
Hi, I'm Harald Mühlhoff — a software architect by trade, an enthusiast for 3D design and printing in my spare time. 3d-playground.org is my playground for exactly that: small projects born from a real need — a spare part you can't buy any more, a helper for the kitchen or bath, a gift or a piece of a toy. 3D design and printing can be fun and, almost as a side effect, produce genuinely useful things for everyday life.
Built, not sculpted — with OpenSCAD
I don't design my objects with a mouse but as a program: OpenSCAD describes a solid through commands like cube, cylinder and sphere that can be moved, rotated, combined and subtracted from one another. It fits my background as a developer — and has a tangible benefit: dimensions sit as variables at the top of the code. A different hole spacing, a different wall thickness? Change one number, re-render, done.
That's why many projects come with the full, commented OpenSCAD source to copy and adapt. Some of it is solved "quick & dirty", some deliberately shows how to do it properly — with variables, parameterised modules and loops.
What you'll find here
- Projects from everyday life — sorted by area: kitchen, bath, household, garden, gifts, toys and spare parts.
- OpenSCAD source for many posts — to rebuild, understand and adapt.
- Basics for getting started — from installing OpenSCAD to printing with the slicer.
My main aim is to spark ideas for your own designs. If a link points to a product, that's stated openly.
Behind the scenes
By day I don't build printed parts but software — being a software architect and developer is my profession, and 3d-playground.org is the hobby side of it. This site belongs to my company CARECOM® and shares its tech and foundation (Blazor) with my other projects; I built it together with the AI Claude. You can see how that works in the behind-the-scenes piece on the launch at carecom.de. And if you're looking for someone for a software project — from the first design to a finished application — feel free to get in touch.
The name? A playground is for trying things out — no pressure, just the joy of tinkering. That's exactly how this site is meant.