How It's Made: Kappa Insertion Tool

We move a lot of Kappa Quick-Releases. A LOT.

They're also incredibly tedious to assemble...particularly the insertion of the canted coil spring.

Enter ingenuity. (And mistakes. So many mistakes.)

About the maker:

Before introducing Prometheus Lights to the world, founder Jason Hui designed watches, fly-fishing equipment, retail stores and machine tool accessories. He's built animatronic sharks for a Hollywood special effects studio, worked on the Automotive X Prize and the world’s first high-performance electric motorcycle at Mission Motors. “The world is full of stuff,” says Hui. “As a consumer, I want to buy things that I know someone has cared about and that I know will last. As a designer, maker and strategist, I strive to create products that reflect how I see the world, my values and they way I want to fit into the big picture."

[prongATO]

This is awesome! Please make more of these videos!

[erasmus]

Thank-you Jason for putting together the video and showing us "how the sausage is made". I'm impressed how well the Markforged parts came together.

Although I feel bad to criticize the insertion tool after you've put this out there, a couple things are driving me bonkers:

1. Laser cutter for baseplate holes. It could have been 3 taps with a pin punch with the 3D printed base as a guide and then 3 holes with a drill-press. Adding some slop in the 3D printed base holes would compensate for the holes being slightly off and not affected function.

2. Overall insertion tool solution. I can only guess how much time was spent modelling and printing the parts. In the same situation I'd propose a different solution:

Step 1: Buy arbor press.
Step 2: 3D print insertion jig for arbor press.
Step 3: Adjust depth stop for arbor press.

Also, the arbor press provides some tactile feedback as you insert the springs that the pneumatic press does not, so you don't need to fiddle with the press height and air pressure as much.

Of course, I'm some random on the internet who hasn't built the thing and would certainly run into practical issues to solve when getting it to work.

At the end of the video you say "time is money", but I get the impression this is also having some fun at work using different pieces of equipment and the joy of making something work.

[johnrowing]

great to see the design and assembly process. It is so personally rewarding when the plan ( and the parts ) all come together. I tinker with electronics and software but I’m envious of your mechanical prowess. p.s. love my copper bamboo pen. keep up the great work.

[billythekid]

Thank you for this video. Really enjoyed it. Hopefully more like these to come.