Polypanels Filament Lock
Polypanels Filament Lock
3D
Published 2019-06-26T08:40:27+00:00 • Remix de Polypanels // Square, Polypanels // Triangle
This is a slight variation on the basic polypanels which uses standard 1.75mm printer filament as hinge pins to join the panels together more securely. If you want a polypanel creation which is guaranteed not to fall apart on you (short of breaking or melting) then these are the panels for you.
The connectors are identical to the standard ones except a 2.15mm hole is cut through the centre of the hinge. Any 1.75mm filament can then be pushed into the hinge (I tend to use a pair of pliers) and then excess filament trimmed away. The pins generally hold themselves in place, but it's easy enough to flatten the ends of the filament with some pliers to make sure it doesn't come apart. The hinges can then easily be pulled back apart again by pulling the filament with some pliers or pushing it out with another piece of filament.
The walls for the hinges are somewhat thin, approx 1.4mm, but can actually hold quite a significant load; I haven't been able to break a single connection with my bare hands yet (without breaking the frame of the polypanel first). I re-made all the standard polypanels in their different variations, as well as my previous square centre joint panel, to use these pins and adjusted the basic polypanel design slightly to add a little extra strength for the hinges.
Any polypanel with the standard connectors can be adjusted to use these hinge pins by cutting a hole through its length. If you are using Devin Montes original Fusion 360 file to make your polypanels (as I did with all of mine), then simply edit 'Sketch 1' in the file. Draw a 2.15mm circle in the centre of the larger circle in the sketch. I also added two tangent lines at 45 degrees either side of the top of the circle and a straight line across the top (see pictures). This is simply to make the hole printable with only 45 degree overhangs and then a short bridge over the top of the hole. Also reduce the large fillet on the snaps from 2.49mm to 1mm, this adds strength to the connector. Then just before the first 'Circular pattern' feature in the timeline, extrude cut the hole all the way through the hinge. Then complete your polypanel as before.
These panels connect fine to standard panels, but sometimes don't locate properly when joined to each other. This is because the hole through the hinge cuts away parts of the snap connector. For the concave surfaces this is generally fine but the convex parts of the snaps are reduced in effectiveness a little (the height of the 'dome' part is effectively reduced). Once the hinge is assembled with the filament though it's very strong.
| Date published | 26/06/2019 |
| Sin apoyo | YES |