Gridfininty Tape Dispenser

A Gridfinity Tape Dispenser holds a roll of book repair tape:

The perspective makes the dispenser look chonkier than it really is.

A wrap of black silicone tape around the spool embiggens it for a snug fit inside the tape core. A casual inspection of other tapes suggest enlarging the spool by a few percent would help, but it’s Good Enough™ as-is.

The two end thumbscrews fasten the 4×1 Gridfinity baseplate to the dispenser; both from Gridfinity Refined:

If I had my wits about me, I’d have used a nicely contrasting color for the baseplate, but it is what it is.

Although they’re called “thumbscrews”, the slot is sized for a US quarter (or cart coin).

An OpenSCAD one-liner produces an SVG model of the baseplate:

projection(cut=true) import("Grid 4x1.stl");

Import SVG into LightBurn, delete the magnet pockets, and Fire The Laser on some EVA foam:

A layer of 3M 300LSE tape holds the foam in place, because neither side sticks well to the goo on a craft adhesive sheet due to their low surface energy. I stuck an oversize rectangle to the foam with the thin adhesive side before cutting, which required a second pass at higher speed.

The thumbscrews also close off the holes in the dispenser bottom through which I poured 275 g = 1 oz of sand for better traction. Steel shot is reputed to be Even Better, although most of the BBs are in the long-arm weight.

The dispenser model includes a printed serrated blade, but it works as poorly as the author suggested. A length snapped from an ancient Strombecker 4-I (“four eye”) blade in the Box o’ Big X-Acto Blades fits perfectly, works wonderfully well, and is sufficiently inconspicuous to warrant the warning label. An X-Acto #26 Whittling Blade would probably snap down equally well.