perfect (3d printed) hinge

In the project budget, the hardware routine is an important part of the budget.
Let your hardware achieve the dual goal of getting the right hardware and reducing the overall cost on its own.
Hinges made of metal or wood are not easy to make and a good hinge can take you a lot of time.
By, no one has enough skills or the right tools to succeed.
Since the local store is not close to my home, I often want to 3D print the hardware for my project.
Plastic may be strong enough if you need a handle, a splint or a handle.
But the hinge should be bent without bending and keep a lot of weight.
I have tried a lot of designs for the printed hinges, but I am often eliminated.
Most printable hinges are not heavy hinges even when screws are used as shaft.
I mean especially those with screws as the shaft.
Because steel is stronger than plastic, it always causes the hinge to fail.
In some cases, the thread will grind the plastic on the barrel side.
The hinges will soon work and become fragile.
The complete plastic hinge is not better.
Plastic is a fairly weak material, and you need to be oversized in order to get some stiffness and strength.
Since no one wants to add a big Fisher Price to his project, most of the designs are small hinges, so there is a small shaft and a small bushing.
Therefore, the 3d printed hinges cannot hold small panels like plexiglass.
Unfortunately, even if you want to move the lightweight material, the plastic hinges printed in 3D are easily broken.
The main reason is the way they are printed.
The weakest hinge consists of three parts: two leaves and a printing shaft.
In most cases, the hinge needs to be installed vertically, or the shaft can be extended out.
Then there are two part hinges, most of which are joined by the ball, and obviously it can\'t hold a lot.
Then it is printed separately.
There is also a dilemma.
If your hinge is placed on a print bed, you will get a good shaft and barrel strength, but it is not round enough for a good movement.
If your hinge is printed standing, you will get a good movement, but there is not enough material for the shaft or barrel to get good cohesion between layers and it will become weak. . .
The idea is to get a solid shaft and a solid barrel in the reduced area.
The only way to do this is to draw the shaft and barrel with variable diameter.
The shaft needs strength, especially at its connection point, but you don\'t need much strength when you are far away from these points.
On the contrary, the barrels in the center will be stronger.
Therefore, under the same building volume, the overall hinge will be stronger than the shaft and barrel with a constant diameter.
Since the gap between the shaft and the barrel is small and constant, the variable diameter does not bring an additional effect.
After a lot of attempts, the best ratio is 50 supports 50 hinges, excluding 2 supports/hinges/supports.
The profile of the hinge is smooth and large until the barrel area.
The countersunk screw hole makes the screw as cautious as possible, while pushing the hinge vigorously onto the bracket.
I added tear hole when printing to avoid overflow on hole.
In order to get as smooth a motion as possible on the printer, I bypassed the sharp corners of all levels.
As a result, the printing speed is faster and it is always quieter!
The original size of the perfect hinge is 40x40mm (1-
37 ⁄ 64in or 1,57 \")
It is quite scalable.
I printed it out at 150% and there was no obvious extra play.
Joshua downloaded the hinge from thingiverse and printed it out at 75%, no problem.
Of course, the hinges should be printed vertically in order to get a very smooth motion.
If your printer is a bit out of calibration, you may have to remove the hinge for its first opening.
You can do it with your hands, place a leaf of the hinge firmly on the table with one hand and push it down with the other hand.
My 10 year old managed to do it.
I recommend PLA or PETG as printed material because ABS and nylon are very easy to bend.
You can get the last version of the hinge on the perfect hinge thingiverse page and read the printing specifications. (
Look at my face if it\'s important. . . )
Note that the perfect hinge is actually the part I downloaded the most.