This week’s selection is the astonishing 3D printed tape measure by YouTube user angrymonk55.
It is indeed a fully functional tape measure, printed in a single operation. The tape measure is approximately four feet long, with the “tape” composed of inch-long sections. The tape can be pulled out, wound back inside and even locked, just like a normal tape measure you’d find at the hardware store.
Why do this? Angrymonk55 says:
I don’t have a good answer as to why other than I think this is cool. I think it’s cool that you can design a full-up assembly of parts on the computer send to a printer which will then make it for you already assembled and leave you with a finished device that is more than just a one-piece interestingly shaped part.
We agree. It’s our thought that in some distant future such useful household articles would indeed emerge from home 3D printers. While this design is only a demonstration prototype and isn’t perfectly accurate when measuring, it represents our future.
Alas, if only it were metric, too.
Via YouTube