Man 3D Prints The World's Smallest Circular Saw

Christian de Looper, Tech Times 07 August 2015, 01:08 pm

Those interested in power tools might remember a story from March in which a New Zealand man built the smallest working power drill. The man, named Lance Abernethy, has now created the world's smallest working circular saw.

The tiny device was 3D printed on a Ultimaker 2 machine, with each of the tiny parts being designed using software called Onshape. Because of the size of the device, the parts had to be printed extremely thin, with the shell thickness being only 0.5 mm thick.

"The saw was just a natural progression from the drill," said Abernethy in an interview with 3DPrint.com. "I would like to be able to make a whole set of power tools just like my Makita set I have. I'm not sure how many I will get around to making, though."

The saw itself was printed in 4 pieces, with the shell being printed in 2 halves. The other two parts are a blade holder and a saw guard, just like the parts that would be found on a typical circular saw. It is also powered by a hearing aid battery, which is also found in his miniature drill.

The device may look and operate like a full-size circular saw, but Abernethy says that it cannot really cut through anything at this point. Despite this, he plans on going back and redesigning the saw so that it can actually cut.

"I also printed little brief cases for them to go in, as you can see in the video," continued Abernethy. "I actually made this a few months ago and will start making more stuff soon, once I get back into 3D printing. I will eventually get around to making something with parts people can easily buy and print, and then do a tutorial on how to make it."

This certainly won't be the last miniature invention we will see from Abernethy, although it will be interesting to see what's next. A miniature nail gun, perhaps? Or maybe it will be a tiny chainsaw?

Of course it's becoming possible to 3D print almost anything these days. Even drones can be 3D printed these days, with a team from Southampton University having developed a 3D printed drone that can be printed aboard a Navy ship and launched straight from the ship for use in missions.

Abernethy has also filmed a video of the circular saw, which can be found below.