Hello hardware hackers! I am Zack Freedman, and today I have ten useful prints that every
hobbyist should make. I have just one question... does this rag smell like chloroform to you?
[Muffled thud. Sound of electrical tape ripping.]
Oh, you're awake! Welcome to my super-sketchy secret lair. My 3D printer lives here so I can
keep prints running after hours. Don't worry about the electrical tape; I've been told it's fully
non-conductive. Today, we're going to give my printer the workout of the century as we make ten
clever devices that you should have. Be sure to stay til the very end, because I
have a special surprise for all you Dremel fans. Enough talk; the prints must flow.
Number ten: Mouse Bungee by Peter Merhaut. I like wired mice; they never run out of battery,
they never lag, and you can't really, y'know, find high-quality lefty cordless mice. You can print
this thing in about three hours and 45 minutes, and it snaps together. It holds the cable safely
above desktop debris so it can't sweep or snag stray stuff. It has two points of articulation,
and each have a ball bearing so movement is super smooth. If you do make this, I'd recommend using a
high-quality filament. Those snap fit connectors also like to snap... off. [Brooke:] Uh-oh...
Number nine: USB Cable Holder by Philip Kolb. Actual mathematicians have proven with actual
mathematics that when you agitate a cable, it will automatically form knots. This fun fact means that
your tiniest tub of cables will inevitably degenerate into a Lovecraftian hellscape
as you rummage through it. This USB cable holder is perfect for banishing knot theory from your
workshop while making use of otherwise worthless wall space. What I really like about this one is
that it holds the business end of the cable. You can keep the other end plugged into a USB
hub so a live cable is always available to charge your stuff. It's pretty handy!
[Whip crack!]
Number eight: Camera Rig for Smartphones by Willie Beckmann. If you've ever wondered how I do these
buttery-smooth shots, it's because I put my iPhone in this exact model. A camera rig will never be as
good as a gimbal or a dolly (unless you're in a wheelchair) but it's a heluva lot cheaper.
There's a lot to like about this particular model; it's really easy to assemble, with just four nuts,
four bolts, four screws, and one spring. It'll also take a few minutes to print - 19 hours and
15 minutes to be exact - and it uses like 200 grams of filament. That said, the design is
very forgiving. The spring-loaded phone clamp handles all kinds of phone cases, and there's
even a handy 1/4" threaded hole and a shutter button clip so you can attach some accessories.
[Vroom-vroom mouth noises]
Number seven: Battery Inserts for Altoids Tins by Dave312. Lithium batteries are
[REDACTED]ing terrifying. These things will blow up your handbag, incinerate your jeans,
kick your dog, and run off with your wife. So let's put 'em in a metal tin! These handy
inserts nest into Altoids tins and turn them into Keter-class Secure Power Containment.
Each one prints with no supports or anything in about two and a half hours,
and they all perfectly fit in a tin with no cleanup required. Oh, Altoids,
those three-dollar project boxes with a handful of free breath mints. Did you know that the Arduino,
the BeagleBone, AND the Raspberry Pi were all specifically sized to fit one of these?
So, why not keep your rechargeable breath battery mint cells in the BONUS MODEL!! Number
seven and a half: Altoids Tin Selector Rack by John Plunkett. It's not the most elegant
Altoids containment system, but it does have a little pushbutton that ejects your Altoids.
[Altoids/floor collision sounds]
Makes me feel like I'm in the engine room of the USS Enterprise. [Anxiously] Except the
engine room of the USS Enterprise always has electrical fires...
Number six: Screw sorting jig double whammy! Metric by James Leonard,
imperial by Emi Xin. Don't you hate it when this happens?
[Sad but epic orchestral music]
Or when this happens?
[Sad but epic orchestral music]
We can 3D print our way out of this. These jigs have little slots and lines to help you figure
out the threading of common screws as well as their length. I like to bring these things to
the hardware store, because sometimes Karen can't be bothered to put her screws back in
the right box. [Yelling at ear-destroying volume] WHAT ARE YOU?!! You can print the model as normal
and switch filament to a contrasting color for the text. That way, you'll have sharp,
easy-to-read legends that never wear off, unless you're me and you printed the letters in ABS. If
you're going to print anything on this list, you should definitely print these things,
because if you're anything like me, you have a massive pile of disorganized screws and you've
been using this as an excuse not to sort 'em. [Film noir gangster style] The jig is up! M'yeah!
Number five: Unlockable Loose Filament Spool by Christoph Laimer. By the way,
have you subscribed? More maker videos every Monday! Call to action, baby! You ever buy
some filament from an Amazon seller whose name is almost pronounceable by humans and
they throw in one of those annoying filament samples? Every single time I try to print with one
of those obnoxious little hanks of filament, it guaranteed ties itself in a knot and the printer
implodes. Damn you, knot theory! Damn you to hell! Enter the unlockable filament spool -one side of
this thing flips down so you can just whack the entire bundle right on there and start printing.
This model has a few nifty features in addition to the flippy bits;
it snaps together with absolutely no glue or fasteners anywhere. [Snappity snap snap snap]
Number four: Feather Fingerboard by Adafruit. This thing turns your
Adafruit Feather into a three-inch long skateboard. I couldn't make this one for
you because the trucks and the wheels cannot be 3D printed, and going on a quest to find
a Tech Deck during a global pandemic is just a little too quixotic for me.
ssssSIKE!!
I put on a mask, I went to target, and I bought a Tech Deck. Of all the dev-board enclosures I've found,
this is the only one that can land gnarly grinds, duuuude! It turns out that
bolting a microcontroller onto a fingerboard does not make it any easier to do tricks. This
whole adventure taught me a very important lesson - I really suck at fingerboarding.
Number three: The TUSH by Vassil Gounev. Gaze upon the TUSH, The Ultimate Spool Holder, Vassil's
words, not mine. TUSH is a one-size-fits-all low-friction support for all of your
weird-shaped spools. Just spread your TUSH to the appropriate width, get your spool up in there,
and start extruding. The TUSH runs smoothly because the TUSH is well lubricated! The spool
is riding on two ball bearings on each side, again those 608 bearings that you probably already have.
The only problem with the TUSH is that there's no frame or brace.
The weight of the filament alone is all that's keeping the TUSH under lock.
If your spool is too tight, you get tangled up, or your extruder just gives a good yank,
your TUSH can collapse and dump filament all over your table. Just keep your eyes on the TUSH and be
ready to give it some attention. Honestly, I think every 3D printer should have a TUSH. It's small,
it's cheap, and when you need some TUSH, you'll have one right there that you can grab.
Number two: Dispenser for Syringe of Flux or Solder Paste by Mordaha.
Every bit of surface-mount soldering I do uses either solder paste or flux, and the best way
to deliver that from the tube to the pad is... this Pieco Paste Press! A mechanical paste press
is the best way to deploy a precision blob of the good stuff right where you need it. Problem is,
this Pieco model got discontinued, like, five years ago. Enter the dispenser for syringe
of flux or solder paste. Awful name, decent model. This thing is kind of awkward to print,
it has a goofy rubber band on it, it's not nearly as smooth as the Pieco model, but it gets the job
done. This thing doesn't need springs, doesn't need threaded rod or any other weird hardware - all you need
is some filament, some screws, something spongy, and... a rubber band. If you do
any surface mount work at all you, have GOT to get one of these. Even though it is, like, I'll admit,
really janky, the others are definitely jankier. Maybe I'll make my own one day. I hope not.
You could run off two copies of everything else in this list and still have enough
plastic left for a full-size copy of that stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid Baby Groot.
Well, we're throwing that out the window because number one is, in the parlance of our times,
a BIG CHUNGUS. Cower, mortals, for the number one 3D print of the day is...
Number one: Workbench Storage: Dremel Bit Storage by Steve Boswell.
Consuming almost a pound of plastic and wasting 30 hours of straight printing, this is
nothing less than the very apex of the workshop flex. Behold this temple, this shrine, this god
damn monument to the king of rotary tools. Every sanding drum, every cut-off disc, every flapwheel
is lovingly ensconced in its own custom-fit holder. Like a shining stairway to heaven,
this colossus of collets collates all of your tools, accessories, and supplies into one place,
displaying them all Matrix-style so you can immediately find the Dremel accessory you need.
DIY maker people infer social standing by the quality of one's Dremel, and now
everyone who visits Voidstar Lab will know the sheer girth of my maker [REDACTED].
That was the top ten list of the 14 3D prints that every maker with a 3D printer should
3D print and make. Links to every model, and credit to every author, are in [Fake French] le description.
Next Monday, we will unpack my mobile workshop go bag that I bring to every off-site mission to
build stuff in the field. Hit subscribe and whack that bell to get notified! I am still a new
channel and it makes a colossal difference. Thanks for watching. I'll see you in the future.
[face punch]