WELLINGTON: A New Zealand man has created the world’s smallest and most adorable, working cordless power drill by using the modern magic of 3D printing. Now we have hard proof that this rule applies to power tools as well.
Inspired by childhood stories and a love of small things, the drill was constructed by Auckland resident and factory maintenance engineer Lance Abernethy using an Ultimaker 2 3D printer and Onshape 3D CAD software. It consists of three printed chunks and forms a 17 x 7.5 x 13mm device once assembled along with the 0.5mm twist drill bit.
Abernethy meticulously honed his design before turning it into a physical object, but actually getting the drill to work still required some excitingly MacGyver-esque solutions. A hearing aid battery provides the power, a tiny motor spins the tip, and headphone cables became the wiring. Putting together the little thing needed a light touch since squeezing the trigger too hard would actually threaten to break apart the machine.
