Fully 3D Printed Fractal Vise (Small)

cults3d

After watching Hand Tool Rescue and Chris Borge's video on an antique fractal vise, I also can't resist making one of my own. My aim is to design one that is fully 3D printable without using any fasteners or metal lead screws and at the same time to be printed without any supports. It's not going to be as robust as Chris or Teaching Tech's design simply because plastic is not going to be as strong as metal. So why do it? Because I don't have those parts and I'm lazy to source for them. Just kidding ok. I just want to challenge myself to what extend 3D printing can achieve and also to brush up on my CAD skills. I'm not an engineer so I made an unnecessarily complicated design but it is fun and I definitely learned new things along the process. I use Fusion 360 to design the model. While trying to maintain a supportless design I tried many different options but I still end up with the dovetail design. I do not want to use any external fasteners so this limits the design options further. In order to print the dovetail without support, I split them into 2 parts. The lead screws are another weak point so I made them to be printed horizontally on the bed instead of vertically. I also took the idea of the folding handle from Teaching Tech's design. The smallest clamps are a pain to work with. You may need to scale them bigger by 3-4% if you find them too tight to fit, although all the clamps have 0.3mm clearance between them. Do a test print for fit testing. I do not have an idea how to fully retain the smallest clamp in place so feel free to suggest or remix them. The step files are included.