SKADIS holder for wire rods
How I decided to organise my Gizmo wire rods for wiring
I have about 2,000 hobbies. I even have a to-do list for them and a calendar to keep up with them. One of them is wiring, playing with copper wires.
There is a tool used to round wire and make hollow tubes. It’s called a "Gizmo". You can find it here on Amazon.com. The problem with this tool is that it’s cumbersome. We’re talking about six long metal bars of different sizes and diameters. Due to their length, they take up an unnecessarily large amount of space in a drawer.
Since I have five IKEA SKADIS walls in my apartment, I thought about moving the metal rods on the SKADIS wall, so they were easy to access and didn’t take up space in the drawer. I like having tools within my line of sight; they inspire me when I'm not expecting it.
I made a simple holder with a "chamber" for each rod.
Each metal rod has a different diameter and total size, but I aligned them to the front of the holder for easy access.
The larger the rod, the larger the hole and the chamber for the rod. At the same time, I put a "wall" between each rod. This would complicate the printing process because, in the end, it would not be possible to print without the supports. However, that was ok. The wall was for separating the rods from each other. I already knew very well that the rods liked to tangle together.
Another problem was that I didn't have a modelled universal hook for the SKADIS wall—and I didn't want to use an existing one from Thingiverse. None of them suited me; they broke or took up too much space on the wall. Meanwhile, modifying a downloaded STL was a painful process.
It took about five small test prints, but I got it (I hope) in the precision of tenths of a millimetre. Here are the dimensions to copy it. I have modelled in Fusion 360.
It is essential to repeat the gap of 35.4 millimetres and to keep the handle 4.6 millimetres wide. After months of use, I can confirm that it holds tight and lasts a long time. With the final round, the hook for attaching to SKADIS looks like this:
I printed it with supports (it won't work without them) and with 0.3 DRAFT printing quality. I didn't need any extra quality, and it was just okay.
At least here, you can see why the walls between the rods were necessary. If they weren't there, the bars would be squirming together, and I could accidentally pull several at once.
The holder has served me well for almost a year now.