3D printed fractal vise - The coolest tool you didn't know you needed
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- čas přidán 22. 05. 2024
- I saw an awesome video by Hand Tool Rescue of a 100+ year old fractal vise being restored and just had to have one. CAD and 3D printing makes this possible and if you own a 3D printer you can have one too. You won’t believe how awesome this vise design is, it can morph to clamp almost any shape!
What do you think of my design? My approach has strengths and weaknesses compared to the other designs on Thingiverse. If you would like to modify it, please remix and share.
0:00 Introduction
Hand tool rescue fractal vise restoration video: • Rare Antique Fractal V...
1:12 Other designs on Thingiverse
Antique Fractal Vise Replica By Clerick: www.thingiverse.com/thing:489...
Fractal Vise by Borgey: www.thingiverse.com/thing:489...
Fractal bench dog/clamp for workmate by acgmcll: www.thingiverse.com/thing:490...
2:11 What does fractal mean?
Fractal wiki article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal
Fractal Pyramid with Continuous Cross-section by ricktu: www.thingiverse.com/thing:135...
Fractal broccoli image: www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-...
3:34 My design criteria
Nano vise: www.thingiverse.com/thing:206...
4:29 Design approach and problem solving
Fractal vise patent: patents.google.com/patent/US1...
Onshape CAD (free): www.onshape.com/
6:47 Print settings and tips
Rat Rig V-core 3 playlist: • Rat Rig V-core 3 build
X3D diamond PLA filament: x3d.com.au/products/x3d-pro-d...
My fractal vise design on Thingiverse: www.thingiverse.com/thing:490...
8:10 Assembly order and tips
13:13 Testing!
13:58 Conclusion - Remixes please
Source CAD: cad.onshape.com/documents/550...
John Toebes has created an assembly of the vise with proper constraints and that means you can virtually animate it: cad.onshape.com/documents/a04...
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I need one of these!
haaha
Talk to Michael. He might make you one for one of your Hand Tool Rescue wrenches. (I noticed that one of the other designs he looked at used an HTR wrench as the item to hold.)
Looks like everybody made fractal vises after your video.
I don't know what you're paying youtube for promoting your channel, but it's probably worth it. I was also recommended your fractal vice video out of the blue a few weeks ago, and have since subscribed and been enjoying your back catalog. You're doing amazing work.
First time I had come across your channel and I was an instant fan. Great technical skill and humour. Needless to say your fractal vise video was very inspiriational.
Whoever says that Michael is "copying" videos of others needs to actually watch his videos. He references even the things he didn't try and links videos and files. Not to mention all the contributes he's made to open source projects.
Stellar work Michael, thanks for getting me into 3d printing and design.
Don't listen to those kinds of people. Those are just kids itching to start drama. Michael referenced everything and gave credit properly.
showing what you copied is still copying
@@zirjaeger4037 yet there's a difference between plagiarism and referencing the original material, as seen in any research paper on anything
Whoever says that Michael is "copying", is basically saying that "I see people making X, so I want to make is myself" is bad.
Also, I don't think this is "copying" because he do everything himself, from the designing to the printing, included tweaking. If you say that that is still "copying", well, we do that every *beeping* second.
@@sarahkatherine8458 I may be late to this convo, but if we were not able to copy basic mechanisms, we would not be able to make new mechanisms. Most of them use some sort of previously designed base mechanisms. This is why I like books like 50x Mechanical Movements (Henry T Brown)
Okay now this is a must build project
Yess..saw the original video and..yess
@@forbiddenera same here, seems like all the DIYers and makers got recommended the same vid and now want the same object
@@RazzleberryHaze yea, the algorithm knows all.
I’d like to make one out of pvc and silicone mixture.
The result on a resin printer should be even better! Go Jeyys go! ;-)
If you think about it, the bones in our upper arm, lower arm, hand and the three finger segments are also kind of like a fractal, each segment becoming smaller than the previous but with a similar form. This really seems to be a thing in nature.
HOLY that makes a lot of sense damn
Thats not what a fractal means though, a fractal is simply a shape that no matter how far you zoom in it will not lose its roughness. Similar to a coastline. Fractals can be self-similar but typically aren't
@@PublicVoidStart909 dude, a fractal is a repeating shape/pattern that us matter how far you zoom in will keep it’s show up until the ATOMS NOT FOREVER.
@@NotHere3 "us matter"?
@@PublicVoidStart909 He/She said that it was similar to a fractal, not exactly like it. Meaning it follows the general concept of a fractal but does not exactly resemble it.
It's a really sad thing that the fractal vise was lost to time, it's such a good device, and seeing its restoration to having a place of prominence and popularity is kinda heart warming.
@puncledorf : The problem with a fractal vice is that it is not really a substitute for a normal parallel-jaw vice, so you need to have space for it as well. For instance, if you want to hold a small object, it gets very 'fiddly'. Admittedly the fractal vice I used was a monster. 😜
Its a very cool device for sure but its not really any more useful then a normal vice most of the time. From what iv seen of people using these is they actually dont hold certain objects as good as you think. The way it distributes the weight tends to leave room for what ever you put in the vice to start sliding out if you are doing some really intense work on what is in the vice.
@@billfred9411 Huh, I'd think that the vise would hook under bits and make it really hard to slide in any direction besides maybe a pulling/leveraging it up from the vise. Can't image it would slip down or up the vise.
@@pubcle Notice how everything is laying flat in this video? When i say up and down i mean vertically from were you would be looking at the vice. It will grip around the shape and hold it very well in that regard. what i mean is it slips vertically. The example i saw this with was Adam savage using it to drill a hole in a glass bottle which i will add is no easy feat and he used this vice. The problem was the bottle would slip vertically as he drilled it because the vice doesint have much vertical grip. I should also add if its a very solid object you could just crank it super tight and whatever's in probably wont budge at all . you could likley modify the vice to entirely solve that problem i mentioned as well.
@@PiefacePete46 they make a large and small “jewelers version”. Adam Savage from that old discovery channel show I forget what it’s called recently bought one on alibaba and made a video of it. They come in 2 different sizes. The large one is around 2,500$ usd
I don't think the sentence, "Next, I decided to service my kazoo" has ever been said in a video before
I came here for the Kazoo.. I'm kinda addicted to makeing them, I even bought a circle cutter on Amazon to streamline the process.
If this isn't a euphemism, I don't know what is...
@@evanphi Came here to say the same lol
it's actually a common term if you're in the habit of banana clamping.
Oh... but it has... Just not the type of video that CZcams would typically allow to be posted. LMAO
Thanks for staying open source, its great to see designers take pride in their personal projects enough to share :)
This bring the phrase "They've got my balls in a vice." to a whole new level.
Not really. No
Glad to find I’m not the only dirty minded on here😭
@@imtako4evr you must be new to the internet.
Wow, had no clue - awesome video!
Hi! I think your music and marble machine is really cool!
My favorite channel commenting on my other favorite channel!
bat shit incredible
@@Deses same
of course, martin had to be here
now the fractal vise is gonna be the next big trend
It already is
This is the 4th or 5th video on it i have seen
But it's very handy. I could have used this 20 years ago.
I don't understand what the regular metal version isn't made nowadays ..
@@gustavrsh
Maybe in China, usa/europe would be too expensive to fabricate I guess.
@@FireN2k9 even if it was expensive, I bet a lot of people would pay for it.
Now someone needs to cast a vise using the lost PLA method. This vise is the gift that keeps on giving
Ah! your constraint mechanism is genius, something I really was stuck on. same with the dovetails, although I will say I have found printing them with supports to be less detrimental than I was expecting, the supports printed only ended up being a .6mm line. Very nice design though, your design flow is so much neater than mine.
I enjoyed seeing how the designs available all had their own stamp. When yours is no longer a WIP I'm gong to print it too. Well done!
This would make a great starting point for making a metal vise: PLA could be used to make patterns for casting metal parts. The design as you've made it would allow for interchangeable plastic soft jaws at the D level on an otherwise metal vise, too. Big, big thumbs up for making the design open source!
Shapeways can 3D print steel.
@@atomicskull6405 at the point where you're 3dprinting metal, you're better off using it for weak parts that aren't going to be compromised by being highly porous. a vise is probably not what you want to be extremely weak steel.
Castable resin anyone?
CNC machine and lathe
@@taowroland8697 .... That is going so full circle that it's ironic....
your solution for that constraining lip was really well done
I didn't think that the fractal vise video would get so stuck in someone else's head too. I've been to a few antique stores and garage sales, and I always keep looking at the tools/ vices hoping that I may be lucky enough to be graced by such a cool antique.
I hope HandToolRescue sees this, they would love this!
indeed
That's where I've this as well.
Pretty sure he's why this video exists!
looked for this reference, was not disappointed.
You're about 20 hours early
The instant I saw the thumbnail... "Well, SOMEONE's been watching Hand Tool Rescue..."
Your split design also allows you to use different facing materials. Could sub in steel, brass, wood. Perfect for working on delicate pieces. This vise would be great for gunsmiths in particular, I think.
Lapidary also.
Cool to see something like this come of that fractal vice restoration video.
a new trend in the making
Superb work and fun to watch! The way you organized the prints also makes it super easy for people to duplicate 👍
Total respect .. having all your hard work to be open source ..that's just amazing
I saw the thumbnail for Hand Tool Rescue. Didn't realize it was so cool. I'm going to have to watch it now.
So cool! I'm hoping to get a 3D printer soon and I'd love to print one of these
prusa's are dope
I like the creality ender 5
There are a lot of affordable options these days. I've got a small army of ender 3's and a cr6se that sits in my computer room.
If you don't have a 3d printer, just upload the the files to shapeways and have them print them for you, for a fee of course. You can even get metal prints, but that won't be cheap
@@GReaper any idea what shapeways charges? I'm on a tablet with no 3d printer or capable computer.
Just wanted to express my appreciation at you sharing the source CAD files - it's nice to have STL's to print things, but the moment someone wants to tweak things, STL is awful. By having your CAD, they can directly make adjustments as they please :) I'm sure you know this and that's why you shared it, but it's just refreshing to see someone making that choice.
As soon as I saw Hand Tool Rescue's video, I though, "Someone's gotta do this!" I'm glad this has actually happened - now all I need is a 3D printer of my own!
I really hope a manufacturer is prepared to do this in metal on a large scale! It's such an awesome design!
I don’t have a 3D printer but this video is just incredible. So detailed and such a good walk through on building and assembly. And the fully open source aspect is just amazing to see after all the work you put in to making this.
*AND* It's Open Source! Absolutely amazing project, keep up the great work!
Whoever came up with this thing is a goddamn genius. What an interesting design
the day I found these, I was so taken aback about how incredibly useful these are
kudos to the inventor
Why is this not a well known tool ? this is so handy in cnc machining the bottom, but also with some guides you have a straight vise... cool...
I bet you, ebay will have some Chinese suppliers offering this real soon :)
I'm not sure of the repeatability of location of the part in such a vise. Simple enough to find out: can you clamp something in two different orientations? Also will the piece stay firmly against an end stop?This matters a great deal in CNC machining.
@@HuFlungDung2 I agree to a certain extent, i'm sure that as it is, it wont have the repeatability, a bench vise also does not have the accuracy
epeatability of a machine vise, but I don' t see why that could not be solved, on the other hand, having to make fixtures all the time kinda sucks as well...a whole lot of effort goes into making fixtures, and often the accuracy is not that great either... I agree if we are dealing with precise cnc' s 0.001mm accuracy, its a bit difficult, way to many moving parts, but 0.01 region should be attainable, especially if you use something like a kinetic lock system and\or have the ability to lock the radiants in place...not saying its a one fit solution at all, but I do think it could save a lot on fixturing...a very usable tool in the arsenal of a machinist...
Probably because of all the moving parts, many which look sort of proprietary, it must have been expensive to manufacture and even more expensive to repair.
Just a guess.
It's so cool and interesting that something someone designed and developed over 100 years ago is instantly prized and replicated today.
This clearly demonstrates the revolutionary consequences it will have once metal 3D printing becomes accessible and goes mainstream to people's homes.
Can you imagine?
Brilliant and very clearly explained. I realised that I was so rapt that my mouth was hanging open! I needed one of these years ago but there were no 3D printers....
The tips of the smallest feet chould be printed in a semi-soft rubber.
I was thinking that too--or just over-molded.
a crumple spring-like mechanism maybe?
Glad I'm not the only one that came to the same sad conclusion that these fractal vises just are not available anywhere, anymore. So cool you did this vid @teaching tech I'm going to make one with my children now! Super Cool!
Looks extremely useful for curvy objects that often turn in flat vices
I saw a TikTok of one of these while I was high and i thought it was one of the cleverest applications of fractal engineering ever. Sober now still think it’s the coolest fractal design.
"service my kazoo"
you, sir, are a treasure.
as an CNC engineer and avid 3D printing enthusiast I find this a facilitating method of workholding. Thank you for all your work :-)
If I owned a 3d printer. I would be all over this. This is so cool.
This was like watching a movie in a foreign language with no subtitles….yet I watched the whole damn thing in awe!
The Fractal vice is trending with the makers.
I work in a machine shop. I am going to take your design and instead of printing it, I will make it out of tool steel.
Wish me luck.
Awesome, please share when you're done.
Please do, as I have the same thoughts. But maybe I can just buy yours instead. Lol 👍
I saw the restauration video, and thought that someone could 3d print this vice. And you made it! You are a hero!
That's pretty amazing what can be accomplished these days with 3d printing and some smarts and talent.
Man, you are incredible. I wish i had you as a teacher.
I wish I could manipulate the various software that well. Nice job!
I would love to see this done in a filament or resin designed for metal casting. Taking the individual pieces and doing lost wax/pla/resin casting.
Agreed
Dang, one for precision machining would allow for so many unique setups. Someone needs to get that done.
That video blew my mind. Never knew those vices existed.
I'm a patron member over on hand tool rescue too. I kept forgetting that he posted that video. I will be printing one of these.
metal version on aliexpress in 3, 2 .... (actually I hope that happens) how are these not widely known about and why not still in production. I can think of countless projects this would have been great on.
I assume the production/repair costs with all those precise moving parts is not worth it considering many use cases could be done with a normal vise.
It was made in 1908. Before a lot of precision advancements. Each piece has to be labeled back then for the specific spot/fit
I would have assumed, that it is hard to grip stuff very tight without leaving marks. Similar results can probably achieved by just gripping it violently with classic tools or with softer materials like rubber (in that case it is less constrained, but probably less damaged, too?)
The biggest reason is probably that the manufacturer needs to think about customers and most classic customers probably grip flat stuff or already use their own version, so they didn't see the market. Maybe they overlooked it.
@@ConnorWeller I took a quick look. The pic's say "Patent Pending" so I'd think this design is their version of a fractal vise.
I think these vices were mostly made in the 1900's for holding items while being manually engraved. Engraving is not such a big business these days, with other processes being used for the same effect commercially, so I imagine it would be a very niche market, because even today they would be very expensive.
As someone who uses a vice several times a day I would suggest a couple of practical variations.
1. One less level of fractals, 4 ‘jaws’ on each side should be plenty for any real life situations I can think of and that is still 4 times as many contact surfaces as used successfully for most situations.
I think you probably want about twice the depth of jaws. I would like to see something about 4 times the depth on a woodwork vice to hold something like an axe handle or a carving vertically with much less point loads.
If you are thinking of using something like this it is probably because you want to grip something gently but firmly. The plastic components are gentle enough and the previous suggestion should help make it strong enough. Making it as a jaws that fit onto a normal metal working or woodworking vice could actually take this from a cool and inventive idea to something that is actually very useful in a number of situations.
Thanks for the post, and bringing windscreen wiper design to a vice.
When I saw this on Hand Tool Rescue, I had never heard of this tool, let alone seen one. Now I've seen two and have an opportunity to make one myself. Good Times! Thank you!
I really need to take a few CAD classes to help me bring my ideas to life.
These are some of the first videos I made on the channel: czcams.com/play/PLGqRUdq5ULsMDOxmu10AGPDIOkzNYu7D7.html
Get an OnShape account. Amazing tutorials for free!
How have I never seen one of these before. Excellent work 👍
I saw this in my feed, and knew this had to be inspired by the hand tool rescue channel. That fractal vise is an amazing piece of engineering.
0:22 "CZcams recommends a random video, and you like it"
Damn he's good
Brilliant work Michael!!!
I can´t wait for Ave milling it from some nice toolsteel.
Cue the classical music!
I would prefer This Old Tony for this one or Clickspring!
@@johnv341 Unless TOT has the Maho running 100% CNC now, I can't see it happening. But it would be fun for sure.
@@johnv341 Nah, it needs some fine canadian comentary
@@blubb7711 AVE for a laugh and rough machining. TOT for some finesse (and a laugh)
agmcmll here, was surprised to see my design mentioned in this video! The bench dog I designed also requires no supports, and will not self disassemble. To accomplish this I used a grub screw and corresponding groove like the original. I'll be adding some tweaks and uploading the .step files for my design as well when I get a bit of free time, hopefully this weekend.
Nice design, I think I'll print it too.
@@TeachingTech Thanks! It should print easily. Assembly is not too bad, but the big tweak I want to make is to add counterbores so a single bolt length will do instead of 3.
this video is the random video in my recommended that peaked my interest
Excellent work. One thing I would change is the direction you clamp things. Most clamps tighten in the clockwise direction.
I noticed that late on and didn't want to disassembled and flip things around. I should probably do that. Wasn't sure if anyone would notice so well spotted!
100+ year old vise design, that is no longer available.
Thank you for pointing out all of the folks who have modeled this. (Including you)
I worked seriously enough on the fractals for a while and can say this is the most amazing hand-made product related to fractals I ever saw. Thank you for sharing!
this is perfect for putting the final touches on a sculpture!
Amazing, I was completely enthralled when I saw the vice restoration video, so pleased to see a 3D printed verson. Personally I think the little peg insert in each, uh, "moon shape", to stop the rotation, is more aesthetically pleasing to me than the cut-in-half circle, but man, watching this thing in action is so satisfying
I hope @This Old Tony sees this
Thank you so much for sharing the original CAD files with this project.
I pulled the trigger on my first 3d printer yesterday, and naturally am binge watching 3d printing videos. The amount of creativity and practicality this medium carries is insane.
I wish I can up vote this video a few thousand times.
Amazingly neat job. Seems that specific fractal vise is gong to be a legend.
A 30 second version of this video would be nice
This is like, the simplest most obvious thing that I never would have thought of on my own. It's really just genius! Whoever came up with this is my hero
The design is excellent, I will be printing it, also looking forward to seeing what practical purposes people can use it for
With soft plastic jaws, it would be great for holding pieces of wood or stone for carving, engraving, etc.
6:47 banana for scale :)
This is awesome. This is why I bought a 3D printer. Thanks Michael
Man 3d printing seems to damn helpful when it comes to prototyping and making your own stuff. Really sucks that shipping costs more than the goddamn printer itself to my location.
Hi Micheal, so glad to see you're a fan too. I also saw that restoration video and became obsessed. Tried to create my own print, failed, went to Thingiverse but disappointed with the early models. Yours looks amazing and I'll definitely be giving it a go. Many thanks!
I was looking at your design earlier thinking that could be cool to print. And now I'm off to download the files 😎
I feel like i want to double the thickness and use it to cast a metal vise, what a cool implementation!
using filament for locating dowels....priceless. Great project and video!!
This is absolutely outstanding. It offers the perfect grip on the object it's holding. Shows how powerful fractals are, and shows how they can be applied in real life to make cool and unique fuctions. It may not do as well as rhe normal vices. I feel like a semi sphere shaped version of this design would make it even more affective when it comes to more 3 dimensional objects
How would you keep the semi spheres attached to each other?
@@koopdi I'll try to explain the best I can on how I imagine it going down. instead of the vice being like the way it is in the video (2 dimensional) the parts would resemble more 3 dimensional all connected with a joint system that has circular freedom like ball and socket joints all working down into a fractal as shown in this video but instead of being flat it should be almost like a ball that is in 2 halves all descending down into smaller and smaller self-similar parts of it's self-giving a 3-dimensional grip on an object making desired objects less likely to slip ad there is more of a grip area. hope that makes sense. I'm no genius I wouldn't even know where to start with creating such a thing it's just an idea. it would require more parts but it could work
Makes sense. I might have a go at modelling something like that later. I didn't think of the ball/socket. Good idea. I was thinking of the same dovetail track system but with each segment rotated 90deg from it's parent.@@sizzleshnizzle9484
You should modify the base pieces to accommodate either bolting to a table, or using the channel inserts on a drill press or other tool table.
Also… what would be really cool is a version of just the jaws, that can be bolted or screwed to an ordinary vise with replaceable jaws.
Bingo. This is 100% where my mind went too. Since printing -AN jaws from PLA (holding up pretty OK) to fit my vise, this is the very first thought I had too. And it won't be hard to do, just gotta modify the lower blocks. I'm not super familiar with Onshape (or any CAD program tbh) but gonna try my hands at making this very well made piece look sketchy AF, but functional in this way. lol
It's fascinating when the internet discovers something.
Wow...now once again another printing project that you got my gears working...lol
Thank you Michael super cool project.
what a great job!!!
Great design! You put an amazing amount of thought into it!
I have one suggestion for improvement: Make a grove along the center of the long edge of the gripping parts - maybe at a 90°-120° angle. That would make it much easier to hold on flat things like the wrench in you video.
I agree, that would be welcome. I could also release it as a variant without needing to change other files.
Brilliant! Quite impressive.
I don't have a 3-D Printer, nor do I have a workshop - or any other woodworking tools save my Dremel and the ones that come in a typical household toolkit.
I loved watching this because...I'm an artist! And that fractal vise of yours, my friend, is art.
I saw the video and immediately went to thingiverse probably at the same time since you said winter. I wish I had half the ability to do what you did. Thank you
That was a great video! I thought about trying to make one of these, but I'm not that great at 3d-modeling yet. So, I'm glad you designed this for us!!!
I watched the restoration video a couple of weeks ago and decided I had to have one. But it never occurred to me to print one. This is amazing. Thanks.
Hand tool rescue is awesome 👏🏿👍🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿
I've had a psychedelic trip a year ago where I have seen a lot of fractals as an answer to my own engineering problems... Seems like I have seen the future 😂
You have seen the past.
@@jtcmlt1 to say it in fractal terms: I saw the interconnected self-similarity of the past, the present and the future ;)
@@dunichtich100 🤪
MULTIPLE Nobel prize winners have said LSD helped their discoveries. It's not as far out as it seems.
I love that channel, they take some terrible looking tools and make them so beautiful!
First video I've seen of theirs but it won't be my last.
I'm glad someone did this, as i was really amazed watching that darn vice when it was originally restored.
Such a cool piece of tech.
Superb presentation and thank you for helping upcoming designers.
I was designing my own. Glad you did the hard work for me!
One suggestion though. You need to "brass off" your drill bit when drilling plastic. This means to take a medium stone and flatten the cutting edge to have a neutral rake. That means to flatten it in parallel with the axis of the bit. This would allow the bit to still cut the plastic, but not grab and pull itself through. This gives a much more clean hole and a much lower chance of any blow out on the back side.