Metal threads in 3D printed part.

Start 00:00

Hey, it's Evan from Fractal. In the last video, I showed you how we made our own captive nut feature for Onshape. 

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And in this video, I'm going to put it to the test. And so I'm going to take the test part that I designed and use that Captive Nut Feature for, and we're going to print it out. The idea is we're going to print up to the point we need nut insert the nut, print over it and just keep moving. And then at the end, you'll have embedded nuts, metal nuts inside of the 3d print that can't be removed. If you haven't seen the other video, go check it out over here. And if you want to get the feature, if you're an Onshape user, you can find the link in the description. 

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All right, let's get to it! 

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CAD review 00:39

Okay, here's the part that we're printing. So there are four nuts. And that means there are two printer pauses there at the same level. So again, we're going to print from the bottom, like so. And as the printer comes up, it will print that and we will want to put a nut in right there. Keep printing, and we'll put in another nut. And then we'll put these little supports in right here so that the nut is really snug and the printer just print straight across. 

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Printing 01:06

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All right, and I started the print, let's take a look to see how we're doing. Those are supports. And because they're shorter than the first pause height that I needed, I just went ahead and did them in the same job. And you know, they're kind of scraggly, but I think I can clean them up, I did some extras just in case some turned out bad. And I think they'll fit. I'll check back in once, it's time to put in the first nut. 

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All right, this has paused at the correct layer. Unfortunately, with the Markforged [phonetic 01:36], you can't decide where you do and don't want support. 

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So it's full support, I'm going to tear those out with some pliers real quick. And I'll be right back. 

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All right, the supports are out, we're just going to put the nut on a screw to make it a little easier to handle, put it in and leave that there. Now I've removed the build [phonetic 01:55] plate because on Markforged it reseats really nicely. If this was any other FDM [phonetic 01:01] machine, you'd probably want to leave, leave it on the printer and not move it so that your layers all line up. But that should work. The first nut doesn't need any supports. So I'm going to leave those be... Look at that the nut has just been covered up. So it's going to keep going apart and there's a metal thread inside of there.

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All right, we've paused again for the next nuts to go in.

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So I have to pick the supports out. And I have to maybe tidy these up a bit so they'll fit and then I'll put the nuts in. I forgot to show putting in the nuts but they're in there. And then I cleaned up the supports just a bit, didn't take much and those fit great. 

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Final Part 02:44

All right, here's the final part. And I am really happy with how it turned out. I did have to drill the supports out from the holes. But if you look inside there, we've got a nice embedded metal thread. And our 3d printed parts can be a lot stronger than just driving right into the plastic and it works great. 

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Outro 03:04

All right, now I've got my own 3d printed tchotchke [phonetic 03:10] that can sit on my desk and do nothing until I throw it away. And I learned a lot in the process. 

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If you found this video useful and you'd like to see more content that is trying to teach you how to use the full power of Onshape, please subscribe, so you'll know when I post more videos. And if there's something specific that you would like to learn more about, it maybe versioning and branching or linking documents or in-context modeling or whatever it is, in Onshape that you are currently struggling with or would like to get better at. Let me know in the comments. Because I got a whole backlog of stuff that I'm interested in making videos about but that will help me prioritize. 

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All right, thanks for watching!

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