Travel Tool Chest & Workbench Build Process
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Posted 21st January 2024
I declared this project finished back at the start of December, but that's not strictly true: I've still got to sort out holding the tools in drawers so they don't rattle around all over the place. As I've been in a bit of a workshop slump, not getting much done or feeling especially inspired, I thought I'd have a go at the (quite complex) CAD modelling for a 3D-printed liner for the first drawer.
This is the CAD model at the moment:
It needs work...
Usually when doing this sort of thing, I'd print some very small cut-out bits that I could use to check dimensions and shapes, but this one had so many things I was uncertain about I just decided to print it as-is and try to fix all the various inevitable problems in one go.
It had to be split into two pieces to get it on the printer (the other, bigger drawers, will need four prints per drawer!), but I managed to get both pieces onto the bed at the same time so it could be printed in one go:
As I said, it's far from perfect, but the idea works.
The main thing that needs sorting is the dimensions of the slots for the marking gauges: they stay put (ish), but they don't drop down into the holes in the way I'd intended. Measuring the shape of things like this is a bit of a pain in the proverbial posterior, so I'm not surprised I got it wrong on the first attempt.
Now that I know what needs tweaking, I can do some prints of small sections of it (which will be quicker) to check the adjusted dimensions.
Page 126 of 144
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