The Most Advanced Scotch Tape Dispenser. In The World.
It’s absolute overkill. Over a pound of 6061 aluminum, every part CNC machined and yes, it’s just a scotch tape dispenser. This is the creation of the Advanced CNC class at Laney College as taught by Bob Rice. I programmed and machined all the parts from drawings using MasterCAM, a Chevalier toolroom mill and a Haas SL lathe. All the threads were single-point cut and threaded holes rigid tapped. Every part required at least two operations, every face is machined.
1/2-13 threads
1/4-20 threads
The cutter serration was created using a wedge tool I ground from a broken center-drill, plunged into the part with the spindle off and indexed to simply form the teeth. The tool was plunged .030 deep every .025. I wrote the gcode for that bit manually.
on June 4, 2010 at 5:27 am
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I think this is really cool and would be interested in buying it from you. You interested in selling?
on June 4, 2010 at 9:42 am
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You need an overkill stapler to go with that!
on June 4, 2010 at 11:05 am
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Besides the stapler, maybe an office — and a modest Vice President, taking care of business.
on June 8, 2010 at 6:55 am
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I want it so badly. Put it up on etsy or ebay!
on June 8, 2010 at 7:07 am
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That is an incredible piece of work; I love it through and through. And all you would need to modify to make a dispenser for the short 2″ or 3″ rolls of tape would be the cutter and the standoffs. Those are actually costly enough to make it more reasonable to machine your own! (ie, ugly plastic one on Amazon is $26.)
Now I feel the driving need for some CNC machinery.
on June 8, 2010 at 10:07 am
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Of course! Anything that’s worth doing is worth doing out of MACHINED BILLET ALUMINUM! Any excuse to pick up new tools is absolutely welcome. Although “$50000 CNC Mill for $30 tape dispenser” may be a bit of a stretch
on June 8, 2010 at 7:11 am
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I cannot even imagine the calculated hourly cost of that piece of art… in order to just cover costs of time/effort you mentioned… without taking into account overhead of a shop/tools, depreciation on the machinery, etc… you’d have to charge $500 for something like that (and who knows once you add in any of the other “costs” – maybe you could call the aluminum billit by it’s part no., like RU246, then you could list it as an exotic material and charge $5000)…. anyway… nice, very nice… and if you did make a stapler, I bet you could seriously sell a half dozen sets for $3-5K to a few office-a-holics and art afficianados (not that you’re in it for money… sorry to besmirch your ideals).
on June 8, 2010 at 10:04 am
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Heh, RU246 sounds a bit like some sort of russian nuclear fuel
on June 8, 2010 at 8:23 am
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Absolutely stunning. Price?
Agreed on the stapler.
on June 8, 2010 at 9:14 am
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Love it! One less thing to worry about it when you’ve built something that will last 100 years. You can’t imagine at my last job how many tape dispensers we went through….
on June 8, 2010 at 9:43 am
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i wanna got one too! awesome!
on June 8, 2010 at 10:05 am
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Simple. Elegant. Bad-ass.
on June 9, 2010 at 11:18 pm
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is there any way you would post the masterCAM file so i could run it in my Machine shop class in college?
on June 10, 2010 at 7:57 am
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There’s a Mcam file for every operation- so 13 files, and the project requires at least a dozen tools and a bunch of fixturing setups, soft-jaws, etc. If you are indeed looking for a project of this scale- in my class everyone was able to share the set-ups and tooling- I can send you some drawings. I don’t feel comfortable sending the Mcam files as I’m not 100% sure they all reflect changes that may have been made in the machine controller while the part was being made and I don’t want to be peripherally responsible for breaking stuff. If you’re taking a machine shop class you should get the programming experience! There’s no other way to get it!
on June 14, 2010 at 5:34 pm
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drawings?? COOOLLL!! i could always program the toolpaths myself and all that but yeah this would look smashing on my desk
on June 10, 2010 at 12:09 am
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[...] I need one for just yet (aside from milling a Hellraiser-style cube). Then I saw this: a CNC milled all-aluminum tape dispenser. A 1lb thing of beauty. Beautifully crafted, ready to deliver whatever length of tape you need, [...]
on June 14, 2010 at 5:36 pm
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im currently working on a hellraiser cube for class over the summer so i can have a modern take on the Lament Configuration in nice and shiny aluminum!
on June 11, 2010 at 3:01 am
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Oh my god how cool is that: you have CNC CLASSES AT COLLEGE??!!! ps. the tape dispenser is awsome.
on June 11, 2010 at 2:39 pm
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You need a toilet paper dispenser. That is some nice work
on July 8, 2010 at 10:14 am
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[...] took some shots of the kart chassis before adding the motor, and just for fun, take a look at his scotch tape dispenser. When you’re done clicking on those join us after the break for some test drive [...]
on July 8, 2010 at 12:59 pm
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ME WANTS
on August 13, 2010 at 4:48 am
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finally a dispenser that lasts……i have a few made of plastic , some not cheap , but neither will they last long enough to justify their cost
on August 13, 2010 at 4:52 am
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you polished so well the aluminium that it looks more like steel, stainless steel to be precise
on April 13, 2011 at 9:44 am
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thanks, now im taking this idea and making it for a school project… good idea
on September 16, 2011 at 6:55 pm
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Henry
could you please send me a set of plans for the tape dispencer , I am in a CNC program class Level II , I will write the G code Manually Myself . Thank you!!!!!