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NASA ISS

NASA Makes 3-D Printed Wrench Model Available 99

Posted by samzenpus from the print-your-own dept.
First time accepted submitter smsiebe writes You can now download a piece of history by getting the designs for the wrench that NASA recently emailed to astronauts on the ISS. The wrench took four hours to complete and was the first "uplink tool" printed in space. You can check out a number of models and images on NASA's 3D Resources site.
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NASA Makes 3-D Printed Wrench Model Available More

NASA Makes 3-D Printed Wrench Model Available

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  • 3 in lb? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Taken from the label on the handle. That's not much of a wrench. I could probably tighten something to 3 in-lbs with my fingers. Nice proof of concept though.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I have no idea what a in-lb is, I *could* convert it to Nm but anyway..
      What I wanted to say is, it comes with a known torque cutoff and I find this rather a nice feature, not a bug.

      • Take a 450 page A5-ish paperback. Hold it in front of you with the spine horizontal & facing you, gripping it at the extreme left or right.

        4 inches times 12 ounces.

    • Nice proof of concept though.

      Indeed!

      I think that at this point in the technology, materials science in not yet at a place where a metal object built as a composite of liquid or powdered material could take the same stresses that a drop-forged or milled object can. But it's a matter of time...

      • On the plus side, space construction probably doesn't demand a whole lot of really heroic fastener work(but the gloves make 'finger tight' pretty clumsy if you are outside). In absence of gravity, all sorts of comparatively feeble joints become acceptable, so long as you don't damage things trying to put them together("Yeah, I um, stripped the mounting hole for the habitat module...") and the assembly keeps things from floating away.

        If anything, I'd imagine that space tools are more likely to emphasize b

      • The same could be said for flying car science.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by 0123456 ( 636235 )

          The same could be said for flying car science.

          I'm 3D printing my flying car right now. It's just the printer is going to take thirty years to finish printing.

        • The same could be said for flying car science.

          Flying cars don't solve any pressing issues. In fact just the concept creates many more problems than it could ever "solve".

          • Flying cars don't solve any pressing issues. In fact just the concept creates many more problems than it could ever "solve".

            It would certainly solve problems. It would finally get people around here to shut up about the flying cars already.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dbIII ( 701233 )

        powdered material could take the same stresses that a drop-forged or milled object can

        Among other things the Rolls Royce Trent engines in the Airbus A380 have a turbine disk made from metal powder. Of course the secret is that it's effectively drop-forged metal powder (hot isostatic pressing) which then is cleaned up to the correct tolerances with milling.

      • I think that at this point in the technology, materials science in not yet at a place where a metal object built as a composite of liquid or powdered material could take the same stresses that a drop-forged or milled object can.

        You can mill an object out of wood, or you can 3d print an object in Inconel. Many cheap tools (notably ratchets!) are just cast, and they work just fine unless a fastener is rusted on, or was grossly overtorqued to begin with.

    • can you stick your finger into square hole and turn like that though.
      anyways, maybe they only need just that and only that.

      the wrench looks dull if you look at just the image but actually it has a spinner/oneway lock(dunno english name for that) inside, that you can not see in the pictures - the mechanism is printed in place. I was checking it out because there's the on circle on the surface that shows there's something funny going on. also, for one piece functionality print, your 3d printer better be calib

  • Let's Be Honest (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Frosty Piss ( 770223 ) * on Thursday December 25, 2014 @08:54PM (#48673919)

    When International Space Station Commander Barry Wilmore needed a wrench, NASA knew just what to do. They "e-mailed" him one.

    They make it sound like "Woah! I need a wrench and I don't have it! What ever will I do?"

    Clearly, however, this was a fully planned experiment, and it is doubtful that the wrench was used a the sole tool for some important fix. The wrench will come back with the crew and be studied in a laboratory as I'm sure was planned from the beginning.

    Impressive none the less, but let's be honest here.

    • Re:Let's Be Honest (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 25, 2014 @09:11PM (#48673941)

      This is a "3D printing has brought the entire species to the post-scarcity/replicator era" story. There is no place for reality, rationality, or skepticism.

      Please report to your nearest Luddite reprogramming booth, itself naturally 3D printed.

    • it is doubtful that the wrench was used a the sole tool for some important fix.

      Given that the "wrench" was really a socket driver (or so it appears from the pic), no, it wasn't the sole tool - the socket must've been up there.

      Note the label on the driver, by the by 3 inch-pounds torque. It's a wrench for a very delicate piece of equipment, looks like.

      Oh, and I can well believe they didn't have a torque wrench on hand for something like that. Not like you need a 3 inch-pound wrench all that often....

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbIII ( 701233 )
      I see the main potential is of having a part library and being able to bring up of of many special use tools designed earlier.

  • Amazing design (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 25, 2014 @09:00PM (#48673931)

    The actual design of the wrench is fantastic; it has two moving parts that are printed inside the grip, so it comes out of the printer fully assembled and ready to be used (or not used).

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I just printed it and it came out pretty nicely.
      As the original poster mentioned, it comes out of the printer fully assembled and ready to be used.
      In my case, I had to use another wrench to get the part which spins to move. The part which ratchets doesn't actually need to move -- it just needs to flex slightly.
      It took just under an hour to print.
      It only ratchets in one direction -- for tightening, but it actually works!
      It works with ordinary 3/8" square drive sockets. I'm sure they already have a 3/8" soc

      • Re:Amazing design (Score:5, Funny)

        by MobyDisk ( 75490 ) on Friday December 26, 2014 @12:04AM (#48674259) Homepage

        I'm sure they already have a 3/8" socket set on board, so this was just a test.

        Actually they didn't. The Americans looked everywhere: they asked the Russians, Canadians, Brazilians, and Japanese, but all they could find were 9.5mm!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        It only ratchets in one direction -- for tightening, but it actually works!

        So NASA will have to e-mail them a "lefty-loosey" wrench to disassemble something? Why didn't they design it with a square drive on both sides of the wrench? I'd give them a C+ in Industrial Design 101.

  • Formerly Printed by CIA (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    So THAT'S where the CIA gets their untraceable $5 wrenches.

    captcha: corrupts

  • If you know you are limited to a certain material, in some instances you can modify the part design to do the intended job with that material. In some instances you absolutely need a certain surface hardness or thermal properties or whatever which prevents this. But you can redesign a wrench for requisite stiffness and strength, it just won't look like a steel wrench and might be too bulky and unwieldy to use in certain places.

  • If NASA had used a 3D scanner to scan in an existing wrench, instead of designing a new one, then they could claim, in some rudimentary way, to have deployed the first instance of a star-trek style transporter. They still can.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by 0123456 ( 636235 )

      If NASA had used a 3D scanner to scan in an existing wrench, instead of designing a new one, then they could claim, in some rudimentary way, to have deployed the first instance of a star-trek style transporter.

      Only if they destroyed the original wrench after they 'transported' it.

  • the machine and raw materials weighed and cost significantly more than just putting a 12.99 socket set in the fucking toolbox

    BUT 3D PRINTING RARRRWWARRROOT!

    stupid

    • Yeah, it would obviously make much more sense to just send every tool imaginable and spare parts for every possible thing that could ever break instead of one small 3D printer. You're so smart! If only NASA had consulted with you first.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        send every tool imaginable

        Smart people in NASA would design the ISS (and any other systems needed to be maintained in space) using a limited number of fastener types and sizes. This reduces the tool inventory needed.

  • Yes (Score:1)

    by koan ( 80826 )

    Waste your PLA.

  • Printed on Christmas Eve and showed it off to the family at Christmas. They were impressed. https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dpri... [reddit.com]

  • It was not really a useful wrench. It was a publicity gimmick. 3 in-lbs is finger tight. You don't need a wrench for that.

    The design was poor- torque applied to the socket would apply shearing force to the square post on the wrench and tear the layers apart. There was a single pawl engaging the ratchet wheel which means that tiny little bit of plastic had all the force applied to it. Also, the ratchet only turned in one direction- tightening a nut but not loosening. After a relatively few turns, the

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