Dr.Al
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- Gloucestershire, UK
I thought I'd have a go at 3D printing a little drawer unit for storing taps and dies to try to reduce the chaos in the various tap/die drawers I have at the moment. I've seen some designs for 3D printed holders for three taps (taper, second / plug, bottoming / plug), but there are more varieties than that so I want something that gets them all together.
You can't really do a "work-in-progress" for 3D Printing (or at least not one that's interesting in the way a welding, machining or woodworking work-in-progress thread would be), but I thought I'd post a few random CAD images as I play around with ideas. It can be a CAD-in-progress thread, hopefully with a 3D printed drawer unit at the end of it.
I started by getting all my in-use (as opposed to unused spares) metric coarse taps and dies out and working out what I've got. I'm not even going to think about the spares, the metric fine taps and dies, the BA taps and dies or the imperial ones. They don't come out very often so I can live with them being disorganised. Having listed all the taps and dies I have, I think I can get away with (for at least M4 to M8) drawers like this:
That won't house all the in-use taps, but I think the rest can be thrown/given away: I probably have enough there! The embossed text should help me put things away in the right place! The unlabelled slot can be for whatever extra ones I have lying around. I haven't decided yet whether I'll label the spiral flute ones in a more detailed way (i.e. with material type or stripe colour). Doing so would reduce flexibility but might help me remember which colour is which!
I've got fewer varieties in M2, M2.5, M3, M10 and M12. M16 and M20 I think I've only got one of each, so they don't need a special drawer.
Anyway, that's as far as I've got so far. I've still got to work out the sizes for the other drawers, then think how they'll fit into a cabinet of some form and finally work out what to do with this lot:
You can't really do a "work-in-progress" for 3D Printing (or at least not one that's interesting in the way a welding, machining or woodworking work-in-progress thread would be), but I thought I'd post a few random CAD images as I play around with ideas. It can be a CAD-in-progress thread, hopefully with a 3D printed drawer unit at the end of it.
I started by getting all my in-use (as opposed to unused spares) metric coarse taps and dies out and working out what I've got. I'm not even going to think about the spares, the metric fine taps and dies, the BA taps and dies or the imperial ones. They don't come out very often so I can live with them being disorganised. Having listed all the taps and dies I have, I think I can get away with (for at least M4 to M8) drawers like this:
That won't house all the in-use taps, but I think the rest can be thrown/given away: I probably have enough there! The embossed text should help me put things away in the right place! The unlabelled slot can be for whatever extra ones I have lying around. I haven't decided yet whether I'll label the spiral flute ones in a more detailed way (i.e. with material type or stripe colour). Doing so would reduce flexibility but might help me remember which colour is which!
I've got fewer varieties in M2, M2.5, M3, M10 and M12. M16 and M20 I think I've only got one of each, so they don't need a special drawer.
Anyway, that's as far as I've got so far. I've still got to work out the sizes for the other drawers, then think how they'll fit into a cabinet of some form and finally work out what to do with this lot: