Custom machine stand yells at you if the drill bits aren’t stored properly

YouTuber Cranktown City recently acquired a new milling machine/drill press, and needed somewhere sturdy to place it. Rather than buying something, he went to work making a nice custom stand with a drawer on top and space for a toolbox below that.

To help keep things organized, this top drawer features a 3D-printed drill index with an interesting trick. In addition to providing storage for the drill bits, it “encourages” you to put them back. Each drill cavity has a small switch, all of which are daisy-chained together. The switch signal is fed to an Arduino Nano, which reads high when all drills are present, and low if one or more is missing.

If one is missing for too long, it triggers a sound module that insults him into proper organization, and lights up a strip of LEDs as an extra reminder.

Code and CAD for the project are available on GitHub if you’d like to try something similar!

And if you're interested in learning about Arduino, PMD Way can help you with a wide range of support Arduino starter kits for beginners and interested hobbyists.

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