while doing the necessary process as a human couple, such as walking the missus in a shopping mall making sure she receives some quality "couple time"; yours truly noticed the missus was looking at a clutch with intense desire. she wants one. moments later, she gazed at yours truly with that teary puppy eyes. Instinctively, yours truly feared for his wallet, to be burnt with a big hole. Resistant is futile, some said. thank goodness missus was easily distracted with the lame dad jokes by yours truly. That near shave of dropping 20quid for a clutch was closed, but yours truly escaped unscathed. However, the mental image of missus looking at yours truly at that point in time cannot be written with zeroes. He just got to make a clutch of some sort, just to make it up to her. Something have to be made!

FabClutch, a digitally fabricated clutch made possible in any FabLabs or makerspaces.

Parts needed

scrap piece of plywood lying idle in fablab. (sorry for being such a cheapo)

Step 1: The Fast, the Bold, and the Ugly for Generating Flexture Aka Living Hinge

Designing flexture can be a real pain in the A$$. 3 ways of doing.

The fast: download inkscape plugin to generate flexture aka living hine https://github.com/drphonon/Inkscape_LivingHinge

the bold: draw basic lines that comprise of a basic spring and links for living hinge. select, then duplicate at fixed interval in corel draw.

The ugly: use any 2D design software of choice, painstakingly draw the lines necessary to form the spring and links, one by one.

The source design can be download from my blog: http://goo.gl/GrT4jT

use laser cutter of choice, process the scrap piece of plywood. Align the grain of plywood to be parallel to the living hinge lines to be cut with laser cutter.

The picture describe the end process. Click on the video to see the bendable and flexible plywood.

Step 2: Sides for Your Clutch Sir?

The sides of the clutch is still missing. In this example, yours truly seek some ways of making the sides. He was toying with the following idea.

1. sewing leather to the sides of the living hinge.

2. cut a 2 pieces of wood with slot joints.

3. 3DP the sides.

judging from the above, 3DP is best; the matter of fact of yours truly cant sew, and cant cut a line straight.

It is not coincidental, the two halves of the sides are designed such that when joint together at the right angle, it forms a heart. The Beatles - And I Love Her was played mentally in his head, no he is not mad.

the 3DP sides were remixed from thingiverse:ziptop bag.

Step 3: Assembly and Final Notes

mini rare earth magnet extracted from a 2.5" hdd aeons ago, way before yours truly and missus met was sacrificed for this FabClutch. The mini rare earth magnet and a piece of Fe are set at the sides where both ends of the living hinge embrace, joining the two halves of a heart.

assembling of FabClutch is a no brainer (possibly otherwise for missus?!). slot in the laser cut hinge, close the clutch with the magnetic clasp.

Oh waittttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt…………I don’t have a missus/wife/GF yet. Computers, smart phones, ipads, surfaces, are not counted.