NASA Wrench

[jebeddo]

Don't know if anyone saw that NASA released their STL file for the wrench they printed in space.
Printed one a few nights ago.
A really neat thing to print, and fully functional too!

http://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/wrench-mis

[BenTheRighteous]

It has moving parts, right? Did they work right off the bat or did you have to fiddle with it first?

[jebeddo]

Yes, it has internal parts that I had to fiddle with for it to work.
I could see around layer 10 my edges on the internal parts started to curve, so I didn't expect it to work at all.
I was able to use my Xacto knife the cut the stuck parts without damaging the unit. I then just put an adjustable wrench on the head of it and turned. That freed it right up.

[Jimustanguitar]

The MakerHive guys made one. Glenn printed it the same day that we noticed that the files were posted.

Here's a rendering that I made of the parts inside:

[img]http://i.imgur.com/4nxqhT9.png[/img]

Link to discussion and video: http://makerhive.proboards.com/thread/9 ... sas-wrench



If it's a useful tool, they ought to make the torque lever inside interchangeable so that they could print 1 wrench and multiple torque inserts.

[barry99705]

I didn't realize it was a torque wrench. I thought it was just a 3 inch ratchet.

[teoman]

I must print that. Just what I needed for some of my motorcycle maintenance tasks.

[Eric]

3 in-lb = 0.25 ft-lb = 0.339 Nm, which is way too loose for nearly all terrestrial tasks. I have to wonder what their specific application is in space.

Of course, fairly accurate higher torques could easily be achieved through procedural means, when you have the kind of detail Nasa has on every fastener. Something like: "Tighten to 3 in-lb with the plastic ratchet/torque wrench, then tighten an additional 1/4 turn with the bar wrench."

[jdurand]

It's NASA, "tighten an additional 0.2499576 turn". I worked on space stuff.

[MrJoe]

I've had a hard time getting the torque lever to stick to the bed. Using glue stick on glass bed, Rostock Max V2, silver PLA, 210°C extruder, 60°C bed, printing at default MatterControl settings and also when printing slower. Bed is level, height seems good (first layer is squished nicely). After the third pass the torque lever loses it's grip on the bed and moves. I let the first one finish and the rest of the print looks good and the ratchet works but not as precisely as designed.

I'm very impressed with the de sign of this wrench and it's suitability of 3D printing. I guess rocket scientists are very smart

Edit: Switched to a different spool of PLA and increased the first layer thickness and got good results.

[teoman]

Dayng. I needed 4Nm. Got the specs confused.

[oklok]

Challenge accepted! This however should be printed with POM or some stronger material.