You know those “What my friends think I do” vs “What I actually do” memes? Well there should be one for 3D printing that highlights what you think you’ll do before buying your first printer vs what you actually wind up printing once you get it!
However, thanks to [Revolver3DPrints] you can fulfill your dream of printing a useful tool that looks like a commercial product, the Revolver two-speed screwdriver. The screwdriver isn’t motorized, but it has an interesting midsection that can be rotated to spin the bit, and you can select between a speed and torque mode.
The Revolver isn’t a solution looking for a problem. The designer noted a few issues with normal screwdrivers. They are hard to get into tight spaces, which was the biggest issue. The Revolver is compact, and since you turn its midsection, you don’t have to have clearance for your hand on the top. The gear ratios allow you to apply more torque without needing a long handle.
As you may have guessed, the internal arrangement is a planetary gear drive. You might consider if you want to print this using resin or FDM printing. You also need some screwdriver bits, some glue, and a few magnets to complete the project. If you prefer to make a motorized screwdriver, we’ve seen that done, too.
Neat, but usually the limiting factor I encounter isn’t screwdriver length, but diameter. This looks pretty bulky, so it wouldn’t fit in a tight assembly, like the vintage sewing machine I’m computerizing. Still a cool idea, and where length is the main issue I’m sure it’s nice.
This plus a flexible shaft on the output might be really cool. Then you get the high torque mode along with the skinniness needed to get in the kind of hard-to-reach spots I encounter more. I’ve got one that would fit it, and my printer’s currently sitting idle, hm…
I would like to see digitizing the sewing machine on HaD when you’re done please.
I plan to submit it once the project isn’t at the early tinkering stage. :)
I’ve never had a problem with a screwdriver handle dimeter personally, though this might mean I’d find one, as it is rather chunk. It has always been my hand that is too big. Something no amount of making the screwdriver thinner would really with. Further disassembly or a really long shaft screwdriver to get into free space is usually required.
Where making it shorter so it fits in between obstructions with enough clearance for the screw is a problem I’ve run into many a time – though a right angle gearbox meant for a drill is my goto solution now. My particular gearbox happens to have a drill chuck of very small size at one end and one of the hex bit sized shafts on the other so it could be used with the hand driver too. May not work out quite a short as this does though.
Yeah, sometimes I can’t even use the extender on a typical electronics screwdriver set because of its slightly greater diameter in a deeply countersunk hole. I usually can’t apply enough axial pressure to keep from stripping something anytime I’m unable to apply enough torque to turn it, but a ratchet that sped up your motion so you could go back and forth 5 degrees while turning the bit more than that would be neat, if that could be made a similar way. Probably too much torque for printing, though.
Hello Clara. My wife and I had a BERNINA sewing machine dealership for 17 years. RIDGELAND MS.
Closed end 2020 I am 86 time to retire. 😊.
Very interesting to hear “ Vintage sewing machine I’m computerizing “
Would like to know more if time allows!
Thank you for your interest! My name above this post should be a link to my blog, where I’ve been writing about the project. I’ve been posting smaller, more frequent updates on Mastodon as well; there’s a link to that on the blog’s About page.
The “torque mode” is hilarious, given that you still have to hold the frame of it to counter that torque.
Could at least have added a 6 or 12-sided contour so one could hold the frame with a ring spanner, but then we might soon find out that 3D printed parts like to snap :)
you can add that yourself of course. Although I don’t expect to use a 3d printed screwdriver with such a high torque.
when i realized the input shaft is actually a few mm wide hex “key” clamped between the gear selector halves i stopped the print and tossed the parts.
the Input immediately thins to a 6.8mm circle, and the output hex socket has a spline 4-6mm across, both of which are printed vertically in the weakest orientation i.e. to shear across the layers.
From the picture I thought that it is an electrical screwderiver. Perhaps one without buttons. Perhaps the next one?
Same. I went from, “Oh, interesting” to just, “oh”.
From the name and picture, I thought this would have a set of various bits stored in the handle, which could be automatically selected. I’ve seen this, but a 3D printed one would be fun to make/customize.
This idea is kinda cool too, though.
Looks like a wannabe worx screw gun. However it looks like it uses more metal parts then most on the shelf products.
With Phillips drive you absolutely need a hand on the end of the screwdriver. It takes high force to prevent the bit being forced from the fastener under torque.
FYI, that action is called “camming out”.
I would like to try one. I fear though being 3D printed that the mechanical integrity of the tool may not be up to the task of just a straight driver no less torque multiplying. I have broken more than a few inexpensive driver handles on stubborn fasteners. The T handled drivers for example, unless they have metal welded into the Tee handle and good plastic, will give before a stubborn fastener. My fav set, and sadly they are no longer around, were from Cummins tools. Nice box, but the drivers, really good steel in them and they have a 1/2″ square steel extension on the end of the handle that is part of the shaft. This allows you to both tap the head into the fastener and or shake the fastener in it’s moorings, but you can also put a wrench on the thing and it will not give. The steel has been better than the fasteners to date. That is I have not cracked a tip.
I’ve seen 1/4″, but 1/2″ – cripes!
The “torque” mode is certainly not going to work, because it would need some kind of lever that is supported by a stationary point to actually be able to increase the torque (Just have a look at real torque multiplier wrench. The “speed increment” could work but the thing looks too awkward to hold for it to be a real benefit.
I do have a (pretty old) spiral / pump screwdriver. It works pretty decently as long as you have the “long” version. For the shorter versions, you loose too much time with the short strokes for it to be a big difference.
Screwdrivers with a good built in ratchet can also work pretty decently. And when they have a large diameter handle you can also generate a decent amount of torque with them. I once had a ratchet screwdriver which was about the size of a tennis ball. The ratchet only went one way, but you could insert the shaft from the other side to change the screw direction. The fat handle worked very well, but unfortunately it was made of very brittle and cheap plastic. As a result it broke just from dropping it. The internals were also made of plastic and not made for a long life.
And of course electric screwdrivers are going to beat these in almost every aspect, but I wrote this under the assumption of “mechanical only”. But the point is still valid. For just a few screws, it does not matter much. For a lot of screws, electric is pretty much the only viable option, and that puts all these mechanical screwdrivers in a pretty small niche. It’s probably 15 years ago that I last used my spiral / pump screwdriver.