ARC / TOOLS

Artisans Repair Club uses a wide range of hand and power tools to make repairs. A surprising number of problems can be fixed with a hammer, a few nails, a level, and the generous application of duct tape.

For larger projects that need an engineered solution or tight-tolerance components, we have a collection of CAM-enabled tools. We really enjoy solving problems that need creative design work, novel solutions, or custom parts. Below, we highlight several of our favorite fabrication tools.

Ultimaker S5 3D Printer

The Ultimaker S5 is our go-to 3D printer. It has a large print volume, interchangeable hot-ends (extrusion nozzles), a brilliant workflow (using Ultimaker’s cloud-based Digital Factory), and the ability to reliably knock out high tolerance parts once a given filament is dialed in. It’s a fabrication workhouse backed by a huge library of specialty filaments. We started with a classic bed slinger (the Creality CR-10), but upgraded to the Ultimaker S5 once we started prototyping carbon fiber parts (wheelchair fixtures, for example).

Carbide 3D / Shapeoko 5 Pro

Carbide 3D produces a number of professional CNC routers for cutting wood, plastic, and aluminum. The Shapeoko 5 Pro is a high-precision CNC router designed to handle full-size sheets (say, sheets of plywood you might purchase from Home Depot). This means we can load in a 2′-by-4′ sheet of MDF and use the entire surface—which makes it ideal for producing custom shelving or replacing damaged cabinet faces. We’ve been very impressed with the Shapeoko 5 Pro’s rigidity, accuracy, and exceptional support staff.

Glowforge Pro Laser Cutter

Some projects require us to fabricate very precise parts or parts with unusual geometries. For those projects we use a laser cutter—in this case, a Glowforge Pro. The main advantage of the Glowforge Pro is that the large user community makes it easy to find the cutting, engraving, or scoring settings for nearly any material. Want to cut sheets of EVA foam? Etch words into clear acrylic panels? Someone in the Glowforge community has already done it. While not as powerful as, say, a Chinese K40 machine, the Glowforge Pro is can handily cut through most 1/4″ materials (excluding metals).