Workshop Uses for 3D Printing

[SamQ aka Ah! Q!]

There aren't too many arguers here, though, luckily.

I made the mistake of letting my heart rule my head yesterday when I dropped in to "t'other place" and got entangled with our old friend(?) Jacob and his disciples - all pronouncing "Tosh!", "never did me any harm!" and generally just being t1ts. Thank God they don't frequent over here; I'd be tempted to investigate printing an offensive weapon...

 

[Mike G]

.....Thank God they don't frequent over here ...

Yeah, this place is for grown-ups.

 

[Dr.Al]

I printed this a couple of days ago, but thought I'd wait for the forum update before posting the photos...

A very simple PETG measuring jug with a small lip at the height to which it should be filled.



I made this for mixing up Mike's Magic Mix: I use a litre bottle to hold it (although I've just ordered some StopLoss bags, so I'll probably switch to them when they arrive), so I figured that a 300 ml measuring jug would be handy for mixing it up (the extra 100 ml in the litre bottle allows for a bit leftover from the last batch).



I tested it by zeroing the scales with the jug on and then filling it with water to the line. 299 g - that's good enough for me!

I made it with fairly thick (3 mm) walls as I have a habit of dropping things in the workshop and I figured it might make it more likely to survive.

 

[Dr.Al]

A little holder for a side-rebate plane:



... and a little stand to hold my phone upright and out-of-the-way:



One of the reasons I like hand-tool woodwork is I can have music on in the background while I plane stuff (no ear defenders needed!) and it's nice to have the phone out so I can see what's playing:

 

[Dr.Al]

The 3D-printer has been working overtime for the last few days making me a new little drawer unit that looks like this:



It's screwed into the shelf above. The bottom drawer has lots of screwdriver bits:



The middle one has hex-shank drills:



The top one has miscellaneous related clutter:



What's slightly unusual about it (and which took a bit of thinking about) is that the drawers are captive but able to tilt, so when they're fully open, they look like this:



That means I can use that long 3D-printed strip at the top for storing screwdrivers in a more compact way than before but still see what's in the drawers when they're open:



The design wasn't perfect: I needed to tweak the height of the drawers slightly, but it was close enough that I just did that with a block plane rather than bothering reprinting!

 

[Mike G]

I don't know why you just don't go the whole hog, and 3D print the Tardis. With far more kit than me, and far less space, Tardis is about your only hope!

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

The 3D-printer has been working overtime for the last few days making me a new little drawer unit that looks like this:

View attachment 29571

It's screwed into the shelf above. The bottom drawer has lots of screwdriver bits:

View attachment 29573

The middle one has hex-shank drills:

View attachment 29574

The top one has miscellaneous related clutter:

View attachment 29575

What's slightly unusual about it (and which took a bit of thinking about) is that the drawers are captive but able to tilt, so when they're fully open, they look like this:

View attachment 29572

That means I can use that long 3D-printed strip at the top for storing screwdrivers in a more compact way than before but still see what's in the drawers when they're open:

View attachment 29576

The design wasn't perfect: I needed to tweak the height of the drawers slightly, but it was close enough that I just did that with a block plane rather than bothering reprinting!

I am impressed with that. I have been wondering what to do with all the screwdriver hex bits I have. I was wondering about seeing if I could do something with gridfinity or the like in one of my drawers, but not got there yet.

 

[Woodbloke]

Impressive but far too organised for me Dr.Al I make do with a. collection of old 'baccy tins and muzak of any sort got kicked into the long grass years ago - Rob

 

[Dr.Al]

I'm not sure this really classes as a workshop use for 3D printing, but it's tangentially related.

There have been a few times recently I wanted to record a short video or take a photo in sub-optimal conditions requiring the camera to be fairly stable. In each case, I've resorted to getting the tripod and old-ish digital SLR out. I've often thought that it would be nice to be able to mount the mobile phone on the tripod (if only for the convenience of the automatic upload to google photos, which my SLR is far too old to be capable of).

There are loads of models out there on the wibbly-wobbly-web for phone tripod mounts, but they all seem to assume that your phone is either un-cased or perhaps in a simple case that just covers the back and sides. Mine lives in a wallet style case, with cards and some cash in the flappy bit. Obviously I could remove the case while using the tripod, but I figured it would simple enough to just design my own tripod mount:



It's got the standard camera thread modelled into the plastic, but I also printed a simple block to fit in the quick-release fitting of my tripod:



With the phone fitted:

 

[Dr.Al]

In a short break from making pepper mills, I'm making something that required drilling a (self-cut) pen blank. I've done this with normal jaws in the past (and that's worked okay), but Axminster do some rather expensive chuck jaws that dedicated to the job: https://www.axminstertools.com/axminster-woodturning-chucks-pen-jaws-103670

Jaws holding a blank for drilling aren't working very hard, so I thought a 3D-printed version would be ideal (and a heck of a lot cheaper!)



The "exit wound" from the drill was central enough for me:



The printer's currently printing a newer version with slightly shorter jaws (the outer end of the current ones is a bit too bendy to be doing any good) and with more gap between the jaws so they can close up on shorter stock:

 

[DaveL]

Nicely done, I have the Axminster jaws, bought before I had a 3D printer. They are very useful, I have been turning light pulls and they make prepping the blanks very quick and easy.

 

[Dr.Al]

The new jaws work well; action shot:



You can see the extra clearance between the jaws here (holding the same size blank):



The "exit wound" is nice and central again:

 

[Robert]

Not visited this thread in a while. Like the idea of a printed Manfrotto tripod plate that continues to become a mounting for whatever. Or can fix to something without having to have a 1/4" thread involved.

 

[Dr.Al]

A couple of extra bits for the home-made woodturning lathe:



The thing on the left is for setting outside calipers to various different diameters to match the ideal sizes (those that form a perfect circle) of the different metal jaws I have. The thing on the left with the magnets glued into the back goes on the head stock and provides a temporary storage space for the chuck key and a 4 mm t-handle Allen key:

 

[AndyP]

The chuck key and t-bar holder is a great idea although I think I would miss the fun of trying to find stuff in a 6”ile of shavings

 

[Dr.Al]

The chuck key and t-bar holder is a great idea although I think I would miss the fun of trying to find stuff in a 6”ile of shavings

Oh, don't worry, there will be plenty of other things I still have to rummage for . For that matter, I'll probably still have to rummage for the chuck key and Allen key as I'm terrible at putting stuff back in the sensible place.

 

[Dr.Al]

I managed to clear an extra sort-of-drawer (more a shelf on heavy duty full extension drawer runners) and that meant I could do a bit of a rearrangement of the lathe accessories (which have accumulated a little since the original layouts thanks to some fortuitous ebay finds).

I've now got three sets of organised storage plus a more general dumping ground. Firstly, chucks, tool posts and some accessories:



Unlike the previous version, the jaws can be left on the chuck if I'm being lazy and the soft buttons can be left on the Cole jaws (or they have a separate storage spot if required). There's also a new pocket for the thread protector to live when it's not on the lathe.

The upper drawer mostly has jaws and the tin of jaw screws:



The Morse Taper tooling rack has also grown. There aren't many new additions (just a centre finder, some calipers and the new tool-post drilling thingy); the main thing is the addition of text labelling everything:

 

[AndyT]

I was admiring this, and thinking how it could save a lot of time if all the tools and accessories go back into their proper labelled places. Then I looked at your previous post in this thread where you said

"I'm terrible at putting stuff back in the sensible place."

Do I detect a new year resolution??

 

[Dr.Al]

I was admiring this, and thinking how it could save a lot of time if all the tools and accessories go back into their proper labelled places. Then I looked at your previous post in this thread where you said

"I'm terrible at putting stuff back in the sensible place."

Do I detect a new year resolution??

Ha!

No, nothing like that I'm afraid. I'll always be bad at putting stuff back, but every now and again I'll do a tidying blitz & it's nice for everything to have a proper home (not least because it makes it easy to check I haven't lost anything).

 

[AndyP]

If I had as many accessories as you seem to have acquired in a very short space of time Al then I might need to amend my rather haphazard approach to storage. Are you sure that you are not just acquiring stuff so you can justify having a 3d printer to make storage solutions.

 

[duke]

Nice, neat and tidy.

 

[Dr.Al]

If I had as many accessories as you seem to have acquired in a very short space of time Al then I might need to amend my rather haphazard approach to storage. Are you sure that you are not just acquiring stuff so you can justify having a 3d printer to make storage solutions.

Hmm, now that's a thought, tools to justify having tools. I'm liking this thought

The number of accessories is definitely excessive for the amount of turning I do. A lot of it was down to one very fortunately timed trip to an antiques centre in Devon (one of these places with lots of sellers under one roof). The day before I went I'd bought one chuck from Axminster (which came with one set of jaws, a face plate and screw chuck plate). In the shop there were a frankly daft number of lathe accessories there (I got chatting to the tool seller who happened to be there at the time and apparently he'd just bought a lathe and all the accessories off someone who was hanging up their chisels for good).

They were all priced extremely cheaply (e.g. the jaws were £10 a set with only these Cole jaws being marked up to the princely sum of £15). I bought less than half of what was on offer but even that amount was enough to keep me lathing for a long time I think. If I'm honest there were one or two things (for example the counterbore drive centre) that I bought without really knowing what they were (in the case of the counterbore drive centre it was £3 and I figured I'd take a punt and figure it out when I got home - I've never used it).

I've since bought a pin chuck on ebay and a simpler (not multi headed) live centre from Axminster but most of the rest (excluding the 3D-printed pen blank drilling jaws, obviously) was from that one well-timed visit to Beer.

 

[NickM]

... but most of the rest was from that one well-timed visit to Beer.

I went to that antique shop in Beer last Autumn. I largely resisted the urge to buy anything, but did pick up a tenon saw which I've resharpened and is really good. It replaced my other old tenon saw which worked but which had a very thick saw blade making it very heavy and a bit too agricultural!

It's a nice shop and it sounds as though your visit was particularly well timed!

 

[Dr.Al]

I went to that antique shop in Beer last Autumn. I largely resisted the urge to buy anything, but did pick up a tenon saw which I've resharpened and is really good. It replaced my other old tenon saw which worked but which had a very thick saw blade making it very heavy and a bit too agricultural!

It's a nice shop and it sounds as though your visit was particularly well timed!

Sadly it's no longer there. The seller briefly moved to a nearby antiques centre in Axminster but then decided to retire in October last year as I understand it.

I'd been there a few times and always came away with a few things, although the visit where I got the lathe stuff was by far the most I'd bought. On a later visit with my father in tow there was a Unimat metalworking lathe there with lots and lots of accessories including the milling head. My dad bought the lathe, went home and put his existing Unimat (which didn't have many accessories at all) on ebay and sold it for £100 more than he'd paid for the one in Beer so he effectively got all the accessories for minus 100 quid.

 

[NickM]

Sadly it's no longer there. The seller briefly moved to a nearby antiques centre in Axminster but then decided to retire in October last year as I understand it.

I'd been there a few times and always came away with a few things, although the visit where I got the lathe stuff was by far the most I'd bought. On a later visit with my father in tow there was a Unimat metalworking lathe there with lots and lots of accessories including the milling head. My dad bought the lathe, went home and put his existing Unimat (which didn't have many accessories at all) on ebay and sold it for £100 more than he'd paid for the one in Beer so he effectively got all the accessories for minus 100 quid.

In that case, perhaps we're thinking of a different place? I'm thinking of Dolphin Antiques and Collectables. We were there in mid-October and, according to Google Maps, it appears to still be open. It had a room of tools.

 

[Dr.Al]

In that case, perhaps we're thinking of a different place? I'm thinking of Dolphin Antiques and Collectables. We were there in mid-October and, according to Google Maps, it appears to still be open. It had a room of tools.

It might be I'm wrong (and I'd be very happy if I am). I haven't been down there since I heard about it.

My info was based on hearsay about them moving to Axminster and then looking for info on the web. They had a facebook page, which used to be https://www.facebook.com/people/Beer-Tool-Shop-at-Dolphin-Antiques/100089286900390/ (note "Beer Tool Shop at Dolphin Antiques" in the URL), which forwards to https://www.facebook.com/people/Secondhand-Tools-in-Axminster/100089286900390/ (now "in Axminster") and the only post I can see (I don't have a facebook account) shows this:



If you go to that facebook page and click "Show all photos", you can see a photo of the old area in Dolphin Antiques along with a photo of the outside of it, but I quickly hit a "you must have a facebook account" error if I try to browse much more than that.

I haven't actually tried to visit. I'll pop to both Dolphin Antiques in Beer and The Old Chapel Antiques in Axminster whenever I'm next in the area (but that might be a while).

It would be lovely if someone else has picked up the proverbial baton. Otherwise I might have to organise another trip to Church Stretton so I can get my fix of second hand tools!

 

[NickM]

Maybe the Dolphin place has multiple sellers (eg you have a room for your stuff) and that tool seller has relocated.

 

[Dr.Al]

Maybe the Dolphin place has multiple sellers (eg you have a room for your stuff) and that tool seller has relocated.

That's quite likely - there were several different areas in Dolphin so it's plausible that it was multiple sellers.

 

[Accipiter]

@Dr.Al ... that appears to be the last post made... there's an email address of info@secondhandtools.co.uk in the About tab as well as a review stating "It is closed has been for some months. Unlikely to ever open again" (21st Jan 2026)

 

[Dr.Al]

I'm in between projects at the moment so have been doing some much-needed tidying up. I've also been adding a few things to the tool wall as I like having the tools visible and easy-to-grab if possible. One example of a new addition to the tool wall is this Stanley #79 side rebate plane that I was given as a present last year:



I thought some people might be interested to know how I go about making a mount like that. Here's the process...

First, a couple of photos showing what the plane looks like:





The first thing I did was take the fence and fence-mounting-screws off and lay it flat on a piece of paper. I could then draw round it with a pencil, marking a couple of (measured with calipers) dimensions that seemed useful:



Having taken a photograph of that sketch, I imported it into CAD and drew around it, adding some more dimensions and generally enlarging everything very slightly (as I want the tool to be a loose fit in its pocket):



That shape got extruded to the measured thickness (including the flat bit of the fence):



A bit was cut-out to make it a more representative shape (based on simple caliper measurements and some 3D-printed radius gauges):



The fence and fence screws got added, with the screw heads over-size and the fence much thicker than in reality to allow it to be left in a range of positions:



I then created a new block, starting a bit below the bottom of the model of the plane and coming up to an arbitrary position that looked about right:



The plane got subtracted from the new block:



There's no way that screw is ever going to get down to its pocket, so we extend the pocket up to make it into a slot:



A couple of countersunk holes were added for wall-mounting screws (with holes in the outside to allow screwdriver access):



There's a lot of excess material at the front left, so a fillet (round-over) finishes it off:



That's it done and ready to print. What looks like a fairly complex shape is created in very few steps (the whole model took me about 10 minutes in total).

 

[Lons]

Oooh thanks, my 79 just sits on a shelf, I like that idea so might have a go.

 

[AndyT]

I'm in awe of Al's prowess with CAD and 3D printing, and a bit jealous too, but I do feel as a representative of a slightly older age group that, as with so many aspects of our hobbies, there is generally more than one right answer.

Here's a little pot on my tool wall, which has probably been there for thirty years already. It's an offcut of plastic downpipe with a disc of scrap wood jammed into the bottom. A screw near the top holds it onto the wall.

Mine holds pens and pencils but could easily hold a little plane if needed!

 

[Dr.Al]

Oooh thanks, my 79 just sits on a shelf, I like that idea so might have a go.

If you want to be lazy, I'd happily send you the CAD model for the one I did (as a STEP file so you can edit if you want).

 

[Lons]

If you want to be lazy, I'd happily send you the CAD model for the one I did (as a STEP file so you can edit if you want).

That's very kind of you Al and yes please. It would certainly take me far longer to do it from scratch.

 

[Dr.Al]

That's very kind of you Al and yes please. It would certainly take me far longer to do it from scratch.

It's on its way to you.

 

[Lons]

It's on its way to you.

thanks Al, much appreciated.
I've just been out and checked and mine is the Record version 2506 so might not be exactly the same as yours but I can adjust that in the file.

 

[Dr.Al]

thanks Al, much appreciated.
I've just been out and checked and mine is the Record version 2506 so might not be exactly the same as yours but I can adjust that in the file.

What, like this one?

I'll send you that model too

Al

 

[Lons]

I can't open the image Al, tried using a VPN but here are pics I've just taken.
It is different to the Stanley looking at it

 

[Dr.Al]

Weird. No idea why the image doesn't work: it's hosted on this site. I'll have another go:

 

[Lons]

Could be something at my end Al, it's open now as well as the one above. Strange.