Personalized Productivity: Tailoring Your Workspace with 3D Printed Tools

They say in space no one can hear you scream. But they could probably hear the whoops of joy when astronauts 3D printed the first tool on the International Space Station in 2018. The ability to make new tools or replace broken ones is priceless when the nearest hardware store is at least 250 miles away and involves a rocket ride.

Anyone with a workshop can relate to the event on the ISS, and everyone with a 3D printer will most likely see an opportunity. Given that most 3D printers are used by people who also have workshops, the logical next step comes to mind. How can you use your 3D printer to optimize your workspace?

3D Printing: A New Solution to an Old Problem

The first tools were rocks. Take a rock and hit another rock to make a hand ax. Use that to cut and shape a piece of wood, and you can turn the hand ax into a stone ax that gives you the mechanical advantages of the lever and the wedge. Fast forward 10,000 years and all tools are made in factories, and if you need a new one, you have to go out and buy it.

The Birth of 3D printing

And then came 3D printing. Invented (sort of) in 1981, 3D printing entered the mass market in 2005 with the open-source RepRap and further accelerated in 2009 with Makerbot and its vast repository of 3D files called Thingiverse. 3D printing has moved beyond specialized workshops and become accessible to backyard tinkerers and kitchen table factories.

What do Makers Print on Their 3D Printers?

Depending on the printer and the materials it can handle, a 3D printer can print almost anything. You can print a house, a car, and pretty soon a human organ like a heart. Home printing is more modest, but the range of items produced in sheds and home workshops is vast.

Some 3D makers specialize in new or replacement parts; things like switches or knobs that broke and are difficult to replace. Others run small custom factories, producing short runs of unique products in a wide range of colors. Some print intricate toys made with hundreds of parts, while others who create in wood or metal use their 3D printers to make the parts to finish their products.

Once you have your 3D printer, you only need your own imagination, a drive to create something unique, and of course, remembering to buy 3D printer filament, and you will be ready to go as far as your creative urges can take you.

Improving Your Workspace with 3D Printing

Like our earlier example of using a rock to make a tool, when you have a 3D printer you can make new tools or repair broken ones. You can improve the tools you have in your workshop, and best of all, you can organize your tools so you will always have what you need at hand.

Printing New Tools or Repairing Broken Ones

We tend to think of people using 3D printers just to make stuff. But for a lot of users, their 3D printer is a tool that can make or repair other tools. If you have a screwdriver with a broken handle, you can print a new one, or a new or better side handle for a drill. A broken lever or switch on a power tool can be replaced in an instant. Tool handles tend to be shaped for the average-sized hand, so if your hands are significantly bigger or smaller, you can print new handles to fit better, and you can color-code them for easy identification.

As 3D printing evolved, so did the relevant software to help you design what you need to print.

Printing Your Own Tools

When most people think of printing their own tools, they envisage simple designs, like a wrench or a screwdriver. This is particularly handy if you suddenly need an odd-sized wrench, or a shorter one to use in a tight space. Ditto when you have to loosen a metric gauge nut.

Non-Standard Tools

Say you need to make a bunch of wooden or metal parts that need a series of holes drilled which are perfectly aligned and spaced. For that, you will need a custom jig. Creating and printing such a jig is almost what a 3D printer was designed for. Any custom jig, template, or spacer can be quickly adapted and printed.

The Next Step in Printing Tools

When RepRap arrived, one of the first tools you could print was other 3D printers. That was 20 years ago, and today you can print anything from a drill press to a circular saw. While many of these designs would require additional parts such as motors, the challenge and satisfaction of making your own complex, fully functioning machine tool slots fully into the mindset of the 3D maker community.

Organizing Your Workspace

An efficient workspace is where every tool is in its place and ready at hand when you need it. Most of us grew up with a wooden slab mounted on the workshop wall, where the tools were traced and nails knocked in to hold that hammer or those pliers. This method worked well for large items like hammers, but it had specific limitations.

When you get another hammer, where would you hang it without recreating the entire wall? And what about fiddly tools like drill bits and torque wrench heads?

Sure, you can buy ready-made tool organizers, but where is the challenge to that? Design and print your own to perfectly fit your workspace and the way you like to work.

3D Printing as a Mindset

The world has changed for people who use tools for a hobby or for earning a living. Tools by their very nature give us the ability to pursue our craft more efficiently. A 3D printer is a powerful tool to have in your workspace, both to make the stuff you want to make and to increase your own productivity by personalizing your workspace.