One of the most time consuming aspects of fragging comes from the time spent holding a coral in place while the glue sets. Long skinny pieces or top heavy ones can be frustrating to mount, especially when fragging multiple pieces. So when someone suggested a tool to do all the holding, I quickly got to work on it. I went through a few virtual designs before settling on the most promising one and 3D printing it out of nylon. The first version worked and it worked pretty well when I tested it with Acropora skeletons. I quickly noticed some aspects that could be better though. The clip only held coral of a certain shape and size range. It couldn't hold really thick pieces or really thin ones, I also thought it would be nice if it could grasp onto plating corals like Montipora or chalice corals. So a new design came out and solved some issues, but presented others. This is an important part of the Maui's Reef lineup and therefore the work will continue until our glueless fragging system becomes a reality.
-Ben
-Ben
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