The New Tool Holder

If you’ve seen my post The (Old) Tool Holder and The (In Progress) Tool Holder then this one is just another in that series and I’m going to ramble on about a few things in the process…

Here’s the final result of what I’ve been working on (on and off) for Wow! Almost a year… I mean, the on and off part meant I took huge breaks for months without doing anything…

The original plan was to replace the old tool holder at my soldering station with a 3D printed “modular” system. See, instead of printing one (or two?) giant blocks with specific holes in specific places, the blocks would allow for easy rearrangement… and the dovetail was a nice way to connect them (but not permanently).

Each tool had a block designed just for it. Well, the blocks are all the same, except for the hole/slot the tool went into. Each tool went it with the handle sticking straight up making it easy to grab.

I eventually removed the block that held the round file because I really wasn’t using it anymore in my soldering. (I had one weird specific thing I used to use it for.) That was the nice thing about separate blocks! I could easily remove one, add in a new one, etc.

To be honest though, I am just not sure the dovetail was the best idea… When I started it was a really fun challenge to get the tolerances just right, which was really easy on my Prusa MINI+, and not at all easy on my old Monoprice Maker Select Plus. (I guess + is better than Plus!)

So while the dovetail is neat and interesting… it may not be the best solution for this specific thing. It’s still a great way to connect certain things, and I love when digital fabrication can borrow from traditional woodworking techniques… But I also realized (again) a few months ago that sometimes it’s just dead simple to use a screw to attach two 3D printed parts.

When I mentioned this recently someone assumed I mean “drill a hole and stick a wood screw in there” but what I meant was “put holes into the two things you are printing and put a screw in there”.

So I did a quick design for a “lap joint” style version of the blocks. Each would connect with 3mm screws, probably 12mm long or something. I have a huge collection of 3mm hardware that I use for so many projects that using it should be a no-brainer when doing this stuff.

I also found that I didn’t rearrange the tools much once I got a configuration that worked. If I used screws to hold things together the power screwdriver would make it pretty simple to pull them apart and rearrange them anyway.

I don’t know that I’ll redo the Tool Holder (yet) because it does work just fine, and if I’m honest I’ve got other things that need organizing. In fact since I just started building a Gridfinity system I wondered if I should make a Gridfinity version of this thing… but I don’t think I will right now. (Maybe some day?)

By the way, the blocks are printed with a lot of infill, because I wanted them to have a bit of weight to them, hence the size of them. Anyway, the Tool Holder is done (and has been for months now, I just never got time to finish this post!)