Desktop 3D printing is an incredible technology to be sure, but it’s not a cure-all. If you’re interested in making something in large numbers, or if production speed is a concern, 3D printing probably isn’t what you’re looking for. But on the flip side, if you want to make a few highly specialized or customized objects, desktop 3D printing represents an absolute revolution in capability for the individual hacker and maker.

In our ongoing mission to prove that desktop 3D printing isn’t just a novelty, we keep a close eye out for printable objects which play to the strengths of the technology. You won’t find any benchmarks or dust collectors here; everything featured in Printed It is a bona fide practical object. An ideal entry into this series is something that you wouldn’t need to print more than a few times, isn’t easily sourced or made via traditional means, and if possible, offers some form of customization which makes it more suitable to the individual’s needs than what’s commercially available.

Not every object we feature hits all of these marks, but this parametric hex key holder designed by [Daniel Leitner] absolutely does. This object was created to address a problem that we imagine most Hackaday readers share: taming an ever-growing collection of hex keys. What’s more, this design is something of an open source success story. It’s an idea that passed through the hands of multiple community members, becoming more refined and functional as it went. Even if you don’t personally need to wrangle some unruly hex keys, this object is a fascinating look at how 3D printing and the community that has sprouted up around it is truly evolving the process of going from concept to execution.

Made-to-Order Design

Somewhere along the line it was decided that every kit, be it an entertainment center or a laser cutter, would include a handful of hex keys. So pretty soon you’re drowning in the things, but of course you never quite have the makings of a complete set and invariably you’ll have duplicates of certain popular sizes. Since folks like us have trouble getting rid of anything in the first place, they just end up filling some dark and dusty drawer until there’s enough of them that they start planning an insurrection.

To help quell the uprising, [Daniel] leveraged the parametric capabilities of OpenSCAD to create a fully custom holder for your collection of hex keys. By entering in the various sizes and number of hex keys you have into an array at the top of the script, his code will spit out a printable model that fits your exact specifications. So if for example you need to hold a half-dozen 2.5 mm hex keys, this design has got you covered.

In a particularly nice touch, the script will even deboss the sizes of the hex keys right into the holder so there’s no doubt about which one is which. While admittedly a minor detail, this is an excellent example of the power of …read more

Source:: Hackaday