A bit small but: http://www.gotoforms.com/Officemate-Desktop-Organizers-p/oic26255.htm http://www.shopbulldog.com/eserv/OS_ProductDetail.asp?Ino=62886&Company… Maybe get a smaller one for smaller tools and keep the old one for larger stuff? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 10:39 PM Subject: Re: bounty for tool organizer

I'd be sore tempted to build one myself and make it work of art using scrap hardwood. There are plans online for build-it-yourself lazy susan-type tool caddies. But I understand that woodworking may not be your thing. --Chuck

I inquired as to printing with plastic, and a friend who does it regularly here producting parts like mouse housings, and housings for our movie viewer product said that the juice that is used in the printers costs around $1000 / litre. As such unless you really want something badly, try some other way than 3D printing. I have not seen what the low end printers that you referred to can do for finish, tolarance, etc, but the process they are using makes parts which are about as clean as the finish on a plastic mouse (which we have a custom version of). I wanted to "print" an Apollo DSKY, and use another asset they have here, which is flex circuits, and do a USB version to attach to the simulator you can run on your PC. The Linux version of the simulator didn't look to be very difficult to interface to, and I figured a real panel version would be pretty cool. The frame and backing is way cheaper with aluminum, very expensive with his printer service. Jim

jim s wrote: If it's "juice", he's probably talking about stereolithograpy, which is definitely insanely expensive, and not at all what I was talking about. Commercial printers that use deposition of ABS plastic have the same problem as inkjet printers, where they try really hard to keep you from being able to buy the ABS from anyone else. It comes in cartridges with protection chips, and the printer won't print if it thinks the cartridge should be empty. The ABS for these typically costs $4.50 per cubic inch, which is $275/liter, or about $265 per kg. Of course, if you pay a service bureau to print something, you'll have some markup on top of that. What I was talking about is do-it-yourself 3D printing. When you do that, you don't have the cartridge conspiracy, and can buy ABS filament for under $50/kg. The quality of prints from the do-it-yourself printers isn't yet comparable to what you get with the $25K professional printer and $265/kg cartridges, but it's close enough for most things. Even with the professional printer you have to do some surfacing operations on the output if you want it to look like an injection molded part.

On Thu, 18 Aug 2011, Eric Smith wrote: <sigh> You're not the only person looking for one. I purchased mine from Radio Shack in the 70s, lost it in a move and have never been able to locate another. --