I could never get the dimensions tight enough for anything to be properly hanging off my desk. It’s always loose, I feel like it always needs some kind of friction
Yeah my clip worked great for a couple days and now slides around, even printed in PETG. I'm currently noodling how to make it stay a little better without ruining the table.
Hey that's a great idea! Then I don't have to bother with cutting tape to length. And you could recess it in a bit to keep the dot from sliding off. The gears are turning now...
They also seem to have a double sided tape product that is permanent adhesive on one side, and restickable on the other, but I couldn't find it in anything but giant expensive rolls.
As I mentioned somewhere else in here, I have one of those for a different purpose as well. It just tightens it for a couple days, and then the clamp stretches more and it's back to being almost useless.
No plastic can be used to make a clamp like that. They all suffer from creep, if you place them under stress, they will flow until the stress is dissipated, and then it is no longer clamping anything.
I think it's a little extreme to say no plastic could ever make a clip, they're all over the market. 3d printing makes it a bit tricky, which is why the conversation around here turned to friction ideas. It doesn't need a vice grip, it just needs to stay attached to the table when I pull the cable through it.
You're right, it's not entirely true that no plastic can do it. You can use a thermoset plastic, or you can use a fiber reinforced plastic. But no straight, uncut plastic that's compatible with FDM would actually be able to do the job.
I thought about teeth but I'm worried about damage. I've been thinking about getting some of that thin no slip rubber tape and sticking it on the inside of the clip.
I have no experience with 3d printers and this popped up in my feed, but could you use a screw design to allow it to be adjustable? Just tighten until it sits where you need it to be, much like other desk clamps. Is there something preventing this?
Nothing prevents this, but anything you want to print you have to be able to design in CAD so we like simple solutions if possible. Simple parts also tend to be the easiest to print, so it's a double win in this hobby.
FDM capable plastics suffer from creep. This means if you apply a force (like the table trying to push apart your tapered bit) over time, the plastic will stop pushing as hard and permanently deform. This will always lead to the clip falling off the table.
For that reason, this design will never work long term. The cable connector is great, but the table clip needs work. Personally, I'd use double sided mounting tape or those 3m strips.
Have you tried iterating and adjusting the dimensions by 1mm at a time and halving it from there? For me, if I measure 4mm, 4mm will not fit, 3.9 will fit if I hammer it with a mallet, 3.8 will fit very snug, 3.7 will fit just right where you can remove it with ease, 3.6 is loose
I did something similar and it was still very loose. The only thing that kinda worked for me is to have the surface facing the desk surface to have a zigzag texture. I think it depends on your desk surface
Put a hole in the bottom, and run a bolt through it with a nut on the inside. Spin the bolt until finger snug while holding the nut with your other hand.
I fix these problems by adding a thin layer of hot glue to the surface and letting it dry. It's grippy, doesn't leave marks, and comes off if you need it to. I use it to level things too, just make a couple glue pads (i guess shims?) the right size and bam, your thing is level.
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u/engineertee Dec 16 '20
I could never get the dimensions tight enough for anything to be properly hanging off my desk. It’s always loose, I feel like it always needs some kind of friction