3D printed fractal vise - The coolest tool you didn't know you needed

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

1:12 Other designs on Thingiverse

2:11 What does fractal mean?

3:34 My design criteria

4:29 Design approach and problem solving

6:47 Print settings and tips

8:10 Assembly order and tips

13:13 Testing!

13:58 Conclusion - Remixes please

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[pubcle]

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.

[rudiwinkelstein]

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.

[jsal]

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.

[DuckyRC]

Thanks for staying open source, its great to see designers take pride in their personal projects enough to share :)

[TimPiggott]

I really hope a manufacturer is prepared to do this in metal on a large scale! It's such an awesome design!

[killsalot]

now the fractal vise is gonna be the next big trend

[abmorse]

I don't think the sentence, "Next, I decided to service my kazoo" has ever been said in a video before

[momsberettas]

This bring the phrase "They've got my balls in a vice." to a whole new level.

[THESLlCK]

the day I found these, I was so taken aback about how incredibly useful these are

kudos to the inventor

[Borgedesigns]

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.

[chrstphrr]

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!

[RetroJack]

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!

[LOSTYKmail]

Total respect .. having all your hard work to be open source ..that's just amazing

[AuthenTech]

So cool! I'm hoping to get a 3D printer soon and I'd love to print one of these

[GadgetAddict]

Superb work and fun to watch! The way you organized the prints also makes it super easy for people to duplicate 👍

[mikedrop]

Now someone needs to cast a vise using the lost PLA method. This vise is the gift that keeps on giving

[MiDnYTe]

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.

[succuvamp_anna]

I hope HandToolRescue sees this, they would love this!

[thomasmurphy]

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.

[featherbrain]

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....