Today I want to share this tool that I made
- and even though it’s a super simple tool,
this sort of stuff is why I’m still excited
about 3D printing and the possibilities it
opens up.
This week I was putting down some new decking
on my balcony and I needed this tool for it
- and while you can buy these on Amazon I
didn’t want to have to wait that long, Amazon
already has a banner up that deliveries might
take longer than usual, and as it turns out,
it’s actually way cheaper and even gets
you a more functional tool if you DIY it.
This cost pennies to make and only took 5
minutes of my time to design and two hours
of the printer’s time to finish, and you
know, with a lot of people staying home right
now, this sort of stuff is awesome because
you can make it exactly to your spec and without
leaving your house, so let me walk you through
what this does and how I made it.
So strictly speaking, you don’t need this
tool to do decking work, but the result you
get is going to be way nicer if you do use
it.
This is for spacing out and aligning the screws
that go through the boards into the substructure,
and because I’m 3D printing it, I can make
this perfectly sit over each board, align
itself with the substructure and get perfectly
spaced holes.
It makes me cringe when I see decks that look
like an eight-year-old put them down with
his toy screwdriver.
So the design of this part is rather simple:
It’s three linear extrusions in Fusion360,
plus a few bevels and fillets.
This is designed to hook over the aluminum
substructure, at the side where there’s
already a board in place, I need to slide
through that slot in between the boards, so
I made very slim fingers that will fit through
that gap; on the other side, I’ve got this
chunky part that should be a bit more robust
and align itself more easily.
Because I’ve “only” got the Ultimaker
3 at home and all my other printers were here
at the studio, I used that.
I know, “only” having an Ultimaker 3 is
tough, but simple stuff like this, you can
print on literally any machine - and if your
printer is too small, you can really easily
split parts up and use for example puzzle
piece connections between the parts.
And here’s a problem: I had forgotten to
account for the extra height that these black
spacers would add and my jig was too short.
But you don’t always have to go back into
CAD and fix the issue there, in my case, I
could just as easily scale up the jig in the
Z direction and get it to fit like that.
None of the other dimensions in Z really matter
all that much, so this is a totally viable
solution.
So while the new part printed, we went ahead
and got started on the cutouts for the balcony
mounts and once we were done with those and
a few other little things, the new print was
done and we could get started on laying down
the boards.
First, we lay down the board in place, the
jig goes on, we drill through the board and
the aluminum substructure, I come in with
a countersink, though that’s probably not
needed, and lastly, drive the deck screw home,
and this cut tip is perfect for cutting its
own thread even into the aluminum.
Now just rinse and repeat about 200 times
and the decking is done!
About half way through I was starting to notice
that my jig holes were starting to get a bit
too worn out to actually get accurate hole
positions, so I simply hit print on the Ultimaker
again and was right back in business with
a fresh jig.
Of course, if you need to lay down more than
a couple of boards, it would totally make
sense to use some inserts for these holes
so that you’re not scraping against the
bare PLA - and actually, the cheap brass threaded
inserts would work perfectly for this.
I’m using a 3mm drill bit, so just slap
an M3 insert in there, drill it out and you’d
get a perfectly inserted metal sleeve that
should easily last for hundreds of holes.
So with about three afternoons spent on the
decking, it’s all done, the screw holes
all line up very nicely and I think this entire
balcony turned out really well.
There are still a few things left to clean
up, like adding a baseboard, not sure what
exactly I’ll do for that.
If you’re interested, this deck is 26mm
thick douglas fir, it’s sitting on 25mm
square, and 3mm thick aluminum tubing, which
is much cheaper and adds less height on top
of the concrete than the proprietary profiles
you can buy, I’m using these generic spacers
between the aluminum and the wood, and it’s
all held down with 5x50 stainless deck screws
with this T-Drill or cut tip.
This has all worked out perfectly, would recommend,
and of course you can find some links for
these parts in the video description for what
it’s worth.
But most importantly, take care of yourselves
these day, finishing projects like these is
one of the ways I find to be really effective
for staying sane.
Take care of your parents, grandparents, and
I don’t mean snuggle with them, but supply
drop them with groceries and stuff, wash your
hands, keep on making, and I will see you
all in the next one.
