Recommended Toolkit
for design students to purchase
Last updated
for design students to purchase
Last updated
Get these first and get into the habit of wearing them while you are prototyping, find ones that are comfortable for you. If you always wear them, they become part of your practice. Just putting them on will help you shift into prototype mode.
Snap-off Blade Knife $13.98
Precision Craft Knife $4.99
Scissor Set $7.98
Superglue $2.65
Glue Dots $5.00
Hot Melt Glue Gun $12.95
Cardboard
Where possible use recycled cardboard. Cereal Packets, old packaging etc you can purchase new cardboard sheets but this is usually expensive. A good source for cardboard is the local supermarket (or a cereal packet).
Pop Sticks
These are very versatile and even though you may not be able to visualize an immediate use you will once you start using them they will prove to be very handy. Pop Sticks can be treated much like a stiff cardboard and you can use the same tools and adhesives to join them.
Coat Hangers
Another hopefully free resource. Try and use the thin ones as the thicker wire gets quite hard to use. The plier kit comes in handy here as the are the best tool to use. It is essential to wear safety glasses when using wire of any kind.
Pliers $5.00
Rulers $4.95
Compass & Protractor $5.13 - $26.26
Regular Safety glasses: $2.65
Safety Over Glasses $4.50
You will find yourself using this knife for most cutting operations. Its well made and good for cutting cardboard this is a fairly small knife with 9mm blades you may with to go up in size if that suits you better. It is essential to wear safety glasses when snapping off an old blade to reveal a new one.
This one is optional but if your doing lots of small precise cuts you may find this one useful.
Why a set? Well scissors like knives have various applications. For long straight cuts the longer scissors are perfect, for curved or detailed cuts the shorter scissors give more control.
Superglue is great for quick glue joints, often its good to use superglue to tack a model together and reinforce the joints later with a slower, cheaper glue.
These are cheaper and often more versatile for quick prototyping than double sided tape.
Once you get used to its quirks you will find a hot melt glue gun to be a quick and versatile method of creating very strong joints. Be sure to purchase extra glue stick as you will go through a surprising amount.
Here is a small cheap set of pliers that cover most small modelling needs. If you have the thicker type of coat hanger wire its best to get the next size up in pliers as these will not give you enough leverage to easily bend or cut the heavier wire.
This stainless steel ruler 2 pack contains a 300mm and a 600mm ruler. Nothing is more annoying than realising you cant measure a straight line more than 300mm.
These tools are useful for setting out move complex shapes. You can get something basic like this: which will do the job, however if you find yourself using the compass a lot, you can get a more expensive but but more accurate and functional one like this: