3d printed 4-Way Clamp

[transatlantic]

Decided to try and copy the Veritas 4 way speed clamp. I am very happy with the results. All you need is finger strength to tighten the nuts to apply enough pressure to close the joints. I also really like how you can fine tune each corner.

I already have some a ideas for improvements

- Adding a bushing to the hole the rod glides through, so there is no metal on plastic when tightening
- Add some feet to raise them of the work surface a little

The only real niggle is that they don't have the quick release nuts the Veritas ones have.

 

[Gerry]

What medium have you printed them in?

Gerry

 

[transatlantic]

What medium have you printed them in?

Gerry

Just PLA

 

[Gerry]

Won't PLA be a bit brittle?
I know you say the nuts are only finger tight but that is still a lot of pressure.
I would have thought PETG, ABS or even better nylon would be preferable for this type of application.
Good Idea and design by the way. Have you put it on thingiverse?

Gerry

 

[transatlantic]

Won't PLA be a bit brittle?
I know you say the nuts are only finger tight but that is still a lot of pressure.
I would have thought PETG, ABS or even better nylon would be preferable for this type of application.
Good Idea and design by the way. Have you put it on thingiverse?

Gerry

You're probably right, but it seems strong enough so far. I haven't used anything other than PLA because it's easy and cheap. Which would you recommend?

 

[SkinnyB]

PLA will be fine for what you are using it for. With good layer adhesion and thick wall thickness should last a very long time!

If there is room you could also add knobs to the nuts to make them a little easier to turn. Does the plastic marr the wood at all? Probably not tight enough to do so... You could make some TPU covers with go over them maybe.
Looking good though! Nice to see someone else on here with a printer.

 

[transatlantic]

PLA will be fine for what you are using it for. With good layer adhesion and thick wall thickness should last a very long time!

If there is room you could also add knobs to the nuts to make them a little easier to turn. Does the plastic marr the wood at all? Probably not tight enough to do so... You could make some TPU covers with go over them maybe.
Looking good though! Nice to see someone else on here with a printer.

Yeah - it does seem quite strong, and I could always increase the infill, and I'm adding the metal bushing. As for marring the wood, it doesn't seem to, but I am going to adding some felt furniture tabs anyway.

 

[NickM]

Well done. That looks really good.

I don't suppose you might be willing to share the design? Don't worry if not - it would make a good project for my 13 year old son who has recently got into 3D printing in a big way and is proving to be quite competent at it!

 

[transatlantic]

Well done. That looks really good.

I don't suppose you might be willing to share the design? Don't worry if not - it would make a good project for my 13 year old son who has recently got into 3D printing in a big way and is proving to be quite competent at it!

Sure, I'll add it here when I get home.

 

[Deadeye]

Hi
I'm curious about the economics here (the fun I understand).
The quotes I had for 3D printing some bits were quite a while ago, so prices may have moved in either direction, but was about £1/ml. Those corners look like they'll have used quite a bit of plastic... and the veritas kit is £31, including the extensions.
So did you do it because you can, or because what you end up with is better, or because it saves money? No criticism, just curious. If the costs have tumbled, then maybe I should look again at getting my parts done.
Thanks
D

 

[transatlantic]

Hi
I'm curious about the economics here (the fun I understand).
The quotes I had for 3D printing some bits were quite a while ago, so prices may have moved in either direction, but was about £1/ml. Those corners look like they'll have used quite a bit of plastic... and the veritas kit is £31, including the extensions.
So did you do it because you can, or because what you end up with is better, or because it saves money? No criticism, just curious. If the costs have tumbled, then maybe I should look again at getting my parts done.
Thanks
D

Purely for fun. But also, I plan on making 4 sets, and can't justify spending £120 on the Veritas ones! (even though they're better)

Costs :

Rods : ~£1 each (needs 4) £4
Nuts : 30p each (needs 8) £2.40
Plastic: ~30p per print (needs 4) £1.20
Expoxy : negligible
Washers : negligible

So about £8, and you can probably get the hardware cheaper.

 

[SkinnyB]

You can pick up 3d FDM printers for as little as £150. PLA Plastic is £15 for 1 kg which will make a 1 KG worth of parts. These parts probably cost 50p each in plastic. . If you can design the parts you can save your self a lot of time and money. And even make money selling the parts on as I do.

 

[Deadeye]

Hi

Thanks for that. The plastic is waaaay (way way) cheaper than i'd understood.
What's the resolution of those printers like? Would they do M1 gear teeth?

 

[transatlantic]

Hi

Thanks for that. The plastic is waaaay (way way) cheaper than i'd understood.
What's the resolution of those printers like? Would they do M1 gear teeth?

I can print to a resolution of 0.1mm in terms of layer height. Line width is around 0.4mm

As for printing very fine gears, I'm not sure if it would be strong enough, at least with PLA.

 

[Deadeye]

Ok. what sort of resolution do they do? .5mm? 1mm?

 

[SkinnyB]

The standard nozzle on a printer is 0.4mm so that is you thinnest wall/thickness you can print. You can get smaller nozzle down to 0.2mm for finer detail. For small gears you would probably be best with nylon filament or carbon fiber filament depending on load. Resolution/accuracy wise if i want a part to be say... 60.34mm wide it will usualy be within +-0.3mm

 

[powertools]

I don't know anything about 3d printing but only a few weeks ago I made similar clamps from wood.

I also tried to find metric slip nuts but could not so I used wing nuts.

I also made internal blocks so that I could also use my fence clamps instead.

 

[Garno]

I don't know anything about 3d printing but only a few weeks ago I made similar clamps from wood.

I also tried to find metric slip nuts but could not so I used wing nuts.

I also made internal blocks so that I could also use my fence clamps instead.

I really like the look of those. =D>

 

[Deadeye]

Thanks for the info Skinny- appreciated.
//
Those wooden clamps look fabulous Garno.

 

[transatlantic]

Very nice!

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk