Tosa Tool Plate Plugs

thingiverse

One of the most valuable purchases I made for my machine was a tool plate. On the bright side, it's fantastic for rapid setup and changeovers, on the downside each of the holes accumulates chips and makes cleaning up a massive headache. You can buy plugs and screws, but aside from the cost, I didn't want to have to unscrew every time. Then John Saunders from NYC CYC came out with a video featuring magnet-based plugs for both pin holes and screw wholes. What a brilliant idea! I couldn't wait and, lucky me, I had access to a 3D printer, so I decided to print the plugs non-stop for four days straight. The next challenge was what metal I could use to attract the magnet and pull the plugs in place. Solution: 1/4-20 1.5" steel flat head screws - they're affordable and have a black oxide coating to protect them from rusting. For my tool plate, I need to print around 170 screw hole plugs and 190 pin plugs. I bought four 100x bags of screws from BoltDepot.com. Tosa sells their high-quality Delrin set for over $200, but I managed to make them for under $40. I also designed a mushroom-shaped handle that just happens to fit the 1/4" magnets I have on hand, so I've included it here. You might need to create your own magnet handle. Note: Sizing - these models were created from the measurements I took from my Tosa Tool Plate. I had to print them slightly undersized to get a good slip fit. Using PETG filament resulted in a 97.5% fill rate.