Originally shared by Walter White
DIY t-slot nuts.
That turned out nice.
If you want use a printed nuts, my suggestion is to print a nut with a smooth hole, that will be drilled and tapped.
nice. Had to zoom to see what you did. I a only knew that about 3D printers when I was in school(1999) I would have build one.
I’ve found that a quick few turns with the beginning of a tap are a good idea in PLA because of the brittleness. ABS: sure, just undersize the hole. (But then I’m the type who does that in aluminum too.)
For me the way to make the slot nuts is to just put two on the end of a spare bolt to jam together, then take pliers and hold the outermost nut against a grinder. Works easiest starting with a square nut.
If you’ve got access to a manual mill like this, then I don’t see the attraction of a plastic nut. If the nut fits the slot, then a plastic nut retainer for metal nuts might be OK.
But that’s what this group is all about. If it weren’t for reinventing the wheel, we wouldn’t have the RepRap in the first place!
I don’t see how running a mill is reinventing the wheel anyway. It looks like those nuts wouldn’t fit the slot as-is without some amount of touch-up or using thinner nuts. This results in simple & elegant parts, and certainly much superior to plastic threads except where you don’t need the strength, but it seems the strength is generally needed for at least half the nuts.
The opportunity costs of making these nuts yourself far exceeds the cost of buying them outright.
@Theophilus_Stark
Depends where you live and what your schedule is like. Sometimes having a thing in 20 minutes is way more important than having it cheaply.
@paul_wallich
That’s true, but as a general rule it is not - unless one likes making nuts and has the time and gear.
@Mark_Rehorst or you could use a jam not placed over a 3d printed insert that has the t slot grooves on it.
It looks pretty quick & easy to do a lot of them if you have access to a mill. Personally, I bought the regular t-nuts in a big package, but I do like the results I see here. I paid Misumi like $35 for 100 M5 stainless t-nuts for 20mm extrusions. This extrusion might be 1" or 30mm, so right the nuts would probably be even more expensive.
The question is that i love the diy, but in my case, the M8 t-slot nuts for a 30x30 alu profile with 8mm cave don’t exist in Italy, and if exist, cost about 0.5€ each: too much.