Do you have another torque wrench you can use to test it?  Be interesting to see how close to 3 in-lb  it really is.

This isn't a torque wrench.  3 in-lbs is the torque limit it can produce before it breaks.  It is a poor design for a wrench because a single, tiny pawl makes contact with the ratchet wheel.  Also, even if the pawl wasn't so weak and it could withstand more torque, the toque applied to the wrench would shear the square peg off the ratchet wheel.  Anyone who has experience with a 3D printer would know that you orient the part on the print bed so that the forces applied don't put the layers in shear because they are weakest that way.  This design can only be used to tighten, not loosen a nut/bolt.

3 in-lbs is only finger tight- you don't need a wrench for that.

This piece was a demo and designed to get as much press coverage as possible.  It was very successful for that, but as a functional wrench?  Not even close...

jagowilson wrote:

I printed one on my .6 nozzle and it came out pretty well. It is pretty easy to counter the ratchet and spin it 360, but it worked after it cooled down and I banged it on the desk a bit.

This might make a very solid piece to test the overall calibration of your machine. Nerdgasm did a video here and if your machine is well calibrated and has no mechanical issues, it should work rather well.

Your picture shows under-extrusion. The tolerances on the NASA wrench look pretty forgiving so I'm not sure that it is a great test piece for overall calibration. Under extrusion will generally allow you to pull off complicated prints (moving parts, etc) but they will have less strength than they should.

I was playing around trying to figure out the cause of my sloppy fill with the .6. I forgot to switch my multiplier back nonetheless it still required some breaking to make it work from my machine and it barely works correctly.  Probably drive system accuracy issues.

I printed one on my .6 nozzle and it came out pretty well. It is pretty easy to counter the ratchet and spin it 360, but it worked after it cooled down and I banged it on the desk a bit.

This might make a very solid piece to test the overall calibration of your machine. Nerdgasm did a video here and if your machine is well calibrated and has no mechanical issues, it should work rather well.

Your picture shows under-extrusion. The tolerances on the NASA wrench look pretty forgiving so I'm not sure that it is a great test piece for overall calibration. Under extrusion will generally allow you to pull off complicated prints (moving parts, etc) but they will have less strength than they should.

This might make a very solid piece to test the overall calibration of your machine. Nerdgasm did a video here and if your machine is well calibrated and has no mechanical issues, it should work rather well.

Do you have another torque wrench you can use to test it?  Be interesting to see how close to 3 in-lb  it really is.

Nope, no way to check the actual values  :-)

I thought this would be a terrific test piece to print since I've just finished a gazillion mods I was doing over the holidays:

The print looks very nice, and the wrench actually worked as soon as I got it off the print bed, nothing needed to be broken loose, so I guess my mods were all successful :-).

Do you have another torque wrench you can use to test it?  Be interesting to see how close to 3 in-lb  it really is.

I think those are both reasons that NASA is  making sure the news is out and the file is available to the public.
Tin

The print looks very nice, and the wrench actually worked as soon as I got it off the print bed, nothing needed to be broken loose, so I guess my mods were all successful :-).

In my opinion NASA just wanted to create a little Hype.

I agree. And i see nothing wrong with the hype in this case. Hype creates interest interest creates pubic support. Public support  can mean funding or lack of funding down the road.

From what I see  this was a continued experiment/ test run for on demand supply chain.
There were some discrepancy in the reporting
first report said wrench was needed. Later report said wrench  was not going to be uses as a tool (therefore not needed)
report said wrench printed as parts that were assembled  stl file unit is assembled.
so yes a little bit if dog and pony show media circus.

The ISS is a laboratory in space to develop emerging technologies into useful  devices.
Tin