Make own tool

Are you going to modify an existing tool, or make your own from scratch? How do you make the tool you want? Is strength a consideration?

These are all questions you'll need to address when figuring out how to make your own tool. Though I can't help define what the problem you're trying to fix is, I can help in learning how to fix it :. Spend some time to take accurate measurements of critical dimensions, then move onto measuring other dimensional considerations such as clearance around the work area.

It's no good to have an accurate tool if you can't fit it inside the work area. We sometimes don't think about all the small dimensions that are in everyday screws, nuts, and other fixtures. With so many small dimensions, it's a good idea to use a notepad to write down your findings as you go. Afterwards, transcribe them again carefully into a detailed sketch.

Compare your notes with what you see in front of you. A little extra time here can save you lots of time later on when designing your solution. Before committing to any one type of design, it's always a good idea to sketch out some ideas. By sketching you can visualize the problem and hopefully spot any issue that might arise during production.

Here is where you will able to see immediately if you forgot to grab any dimensions, and can test out some shape ideas, too. The nice part about sketching is that it doesn't have to conform to any rules, allowing you to fully explore some design notions that would not be possible in any program or CAD tool.

Want your tool to be shaped like an ice cream cone? How about a wrench that has an crocodile mouth opening? These examples are obviously silly, but you can get an idea on just how out of the box you can get with sketching. You're probably not going to get it exactly right on your first try, so get in the mindset that iteration is part of the process.

Even with very accurate dimensions, sketches, and notes, there's always something I haven't considered. If your tool is complex, then it makes sense to break apart the elements and tackle them individually. For instance, if your tool has a wrench on one end and a hex key on the other, then tackle those two elements separately before trying to make the entire tool at once.

This makes dialing in the exact needs of the tool part easier. I made 6 iterations on this wrench concept before I was happy with the design.

I usually go through iterations of an idea, tuning the dimensions, the shape, how it feels, and scale, before I reach a version I am happy with. Having iterations baked into your process means that there are no mistakes from your prototypes, only things you didn't know before. How to solve your design challenge will depend largely on what tools you have available to you.

Luckily desktop manufacturing is becoming very approachable to the average maker, and there are makerspaces popping up in libraries and school all over the place. For the nerds that like having their own tools, small 3D printers, laser cutters, and CNC routers can all be found inexpensively through wholesale distributors like Banggood , AliExpress , and GearBest.

The quality isn't always the greatest, but for entry-level machines that give you a flavor of what a tool can do, the price is unbeatable. CAD software is invaluable to taking your ideas and making them a reality, from validating your design, to accurately defining the shape based on your measurements.

There are a few programs on the market that work really well for rapid prototyping and design, and the best news is that the programs I'm covering are free! Both of these programs are free, which is great when you're still testing out your idea and not sure if you're ready to commit money to your design.

This Instructable is aimed at making a proof of concept and showing quick iterations of a design, I've selected Tinkercad. At the end of this Instructable there will be links to more design resources for Fusion , Tinkercad, and other Instructables projects to keep your CAD skills sharp. This is not the place to detail how Tinkercad works. Instead, I'll cover the program at a very high level, which helps inform the rest of this Instructable. There are more Tinkercad projects in the last step that will guide you through all the steps to become a Tinkercad expert.

Tinkercad uses different shaped blocks called primitives to create the design. These primitives can be stretched, rotated, and scaled in all kinds of ways. The program is incredibly simple, which may seem limiting at first but the simplicity means that there are all kinds of creative solutions that can be applied to achieve your results.

Tinkercad solid and negative boxes. Solid shaped build up a design, while negative shapes remove material. There are two basic shape types in Tinkercad: solids and negatives. The negative primitives will be combined with the solids to remove geometry from your model.

Any shape can be changed between a solid and a negative, which opens up a wide range of shape possibilities. To start, simply drag a shape from the library on the right side of the screen onto the grid workplane. The primitives can be resized by pulling on the white handles when a shape is selected, or dimensional accuracy can be achieved by entering in values in millimeters.

This combines the best of both worlds: visual massing of the model, then dimensional accuracy for the critical parts. Your design will undoubtedly be more complex than what the simple primitive library can provide. By grouping primitive shapes together you can create more complex shapes. Select the shapes you want to combine and use the group command to combine them into a single shape..

By combining different shapes together we're able to bring a design to life. Continuing to combine shapes and negative spaces in clever ways until you have your desired design.

If you make a mistake, don't worry. A good place to start is putting down your known values. From the dimensions measured, start laying out shapes based on those measurements to get your digital design started.

It's best to start with the overall shape, then move into the fine details. The method prints out the message and an image of a robot using lines of text. Run the project and see the output. Try these variations at the command line to see different results:.

Before you can pack and distribute the application as a tool, you need to modify the project file. Open the microsoft. If this element isn't provided, the command name for the tool is the project file name without the. The NuGet package is what the. Create a NuGet package by running the dotnet pack command:. The microsoft. Once the tool is available on NuGet, developers can install the tool by using the dotnet tool install command.

For this tutorial you install the package directly from the local nupkg folder, so there's no need to upload the package to NuGet. If you get an error message while following the tutorial, see Troubleshoot. NET tool usage issues. In this tutorial, you created a console application and packaged it as a tool. To learn how to use the tool as a global tool, advance to the next tutorial.

Install and use a global tool. If you prefer, you can skip the global tools tutorial and go directly to the local tools tutorial.

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