Hey all, over the past few months I’ve been 3D printing prototypes for a multipurpose tool for my office/3D printing space. And I think I’ve got something great.
My friend and I created an extruded channel profile (called Tackoma) that mounts to a wall and accepts light duty accessories such as tool holders, hooks, shelves etc. We’ve also designed it so that it can hold paper or thin objects.
The cool part about it is that we are setting up downloadable models to print your own accessories. Or even create your own accessories for your needs.
I’ve attached a picture showing it on the side of my printer holding my tools. Since it’s an extrusion, it can really be any length and cut to any size. We’ve launched a Kickstarter to raise the money for the first production run. If you are interested in the project, check it out here: Tackoma by Third Plane LLC — Kickstarter 2 or search Tackoma
Also, we want to start uploading our models, where do people recommend putting them? I started uploading a few at Pinshape, but would Thingiverse or Youmagine better for a project like this?
Thanks for all the feedback! I’m hoping we are able to get enough backers in the next two weeks to fund the initial production run.
I’ll focus on putting the accessory models on Thingiverse over the next couple of weeks. But of course, the accessories won’t clip into anything until the channel is extruded. More for an overview of the accessories that we use or have had success.
Geckobox, you are spot on with the strength of printed parts and the criticalness of orientation. The accessories designed for this are to be printed in a specific orientation so they don’t delaminate or break when loaded. And really the application we envisioned are light duty tools and not necessarily heavy tools such as pipe wrenches.
But with that said, we will have a standard 1" hook that will be injection molded. This is what we are providing in the bundles on Kickstarter. And from there, the thought is that community feedback or most downloaded holder would be the next part to be injection molded, building a collection of off-the-shelf accessories. We’ve been quoted around 5k-8k in tooling and initial quantities per accessory for injection molded parts so we’d like to make sure it’s a part everybody could use.
