During my time at 3D-printing company BigRep,  I observed the skill in making the people of BigRep had. Traditional techniques of production were merged with new technology. This shows: even though 3D-Printing is associated with digital and mostly non-manual  design work, it requires a lot of craftsmanship and bricolage.  Thus, tools from traditional processes and the spare parts needed to repair the printer were usually scattered around the printers in the workshop. A toolbox was the obvious thing to be designed as an accessory for the company. It needed to correspond to the visual language of the machine (the product that BigRep is selling) and it needed to fit the production process. Plastic toolboxes are a typical artifact of industrial mass production. Similar toolboxes are usually made using injection molding techniques, the most popular one is  the Vitra toolbox by Arik Levy.  Different to injection moulded toolboxes, this one can be customized using different logos or materials. Also, the particular shape of the handle relates to the production technique, it avoids overhangs. Printing time is 6hrs.

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Shape exploration in Rhino.

Bildschirmfoto 2015-07-12 um 21.32.51Slicing (preparing the machine code) still significantly influences the design.

Photos: BigRep