Toolboard for Fablabs & Makerspaces

by Nicolas Padfield

This is an open source tool board / tool wagon designed by Nicolas Padfield & Michaela Wallachová Jakobsen at Fablab RUC.

It is intended to

  • Include all the tools one might want in a well stocked (and reasonably well funded) Fablab
  • Be clearly labelled and encourage people to keep order and put tools back the right place
  • Enable one to see all the available tools all at once - and beginners to become aware of the existence of tools they do not know about yet
  • Be pedagogically labelled with both pictograms and names in English and Danish
  • Be usable either as a wagon or on a wall
  • Be as easy and quick to produce as possible, in a Fablab, with a laser and CNC.
  • Includes tools for assembling robust electronics such as heat gun, glue gun, wire stripper, wire terminal crimper, multimeter
  • Has space on top for Oscilloscope, soldering iron, lab power supply and chargers

Some may ask "why not use a flexible, modular toolboard where everything can be moved around?". The answer is that at Fablab RUC (spread over building 9 and 37 at campus) the use case is that we are more interested in one, standard solution which is the same in 5 different locations, so one always knows exactly what tools are there and they are always in the same position so they are easy to find.

We have produced and used a Mk 1, and have produced the Mk 2, but will probably have improvements after using them for half a year.

This tool board contains a lot of slightly more advanced tools some people may not know - like thread taps, drills in sizes for ISO thread taps, pyramid drills, combi taps, centering drill etc. etc.

The two boards can be mounted front and back of a wagon, or on a wall, next to each other. If mounting on a wall, it may be advisable to move the top row down, so the most used tools are not too high up.

Wagon also includes space for 12 boxes - Plastic boxes are Smartstore Classic 15.

OBS this is a work in progress, there will be errors and improvements.

Design is open source (CC-BY) and available here

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zipxfy5qoyo8chx/AACjvtjhitz8KeSiHSLH4atVa?dl=0

We're experimenting with a Fusion 360 version.

(Work in progress) https://a360.co/3RJOI4H