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] .