3D Printer Filament Sensor Solution
I needed to create a bracket for our new filament sensors. It needed to be able to hold the filament sensor, mount on the printer, and to have two filament tubes screwed into the top. Our filament sensors tell our printers when we run out of filament. Once it recognizes that the filament is depleted it tells our machine to pause until it its reloaded.
For material, I decided to stick with PLA. Unfortunately, the bracket would crack every time that I would thread the hole for the filament tube!
Initially I thought that it was due to design. I eventually redesigned the holes in the top to have thicker walls surrounding it. Although it did help, it didn’t remedy the problem. It still would continue to crack! After some thought I decided to change the way that I was having the part printed.
At first, I thought it would be best to have it printed on its back. Mainly to allow the part to print faster. The issue that was occurring by having it printed on its side was the layering. This allowed the tips of the holes to pop off when applying pressure. In this particular example the pressure was from the threading of the hole.
After making some minor tweaks, keeping the walls around the hole thicker and most importantly changing the direction of the print this allowed me to successfully thread my part without it breaking in the process!