3D printable ready-to-use mini clamp or clothespin
Creative Commons - Attribution
This is a print-in-place small clamp or clothespin, that requires no assembly or external springs. The working principle is inspired by muzz64's ‘Germz’. The outer part of the clamp acts as the spring.
It comes in 2 variants, one with the ‘jaws’ in a zig-zag interlocking design, which is best for grabbing thin objects or cloth, and one with symmetric jaws, best for grabbing wires or thin sticks.
The recommended material is PETG, because it is good at retaining its ‘springiness.’ ABS or ASA may also be OK. PLA has a tendency to ‘creep’ under tension, and also to become brittle and break over time.
You should use at least 3 perimeters when printing at an extrusion width of 0.6 mm, or 4 perimeters with an extrusion width of 0.4 mm. Infill is not terribly important, I used 15%.
The models with xtraTol in their name have a slightly larger clearance between the overhangs. If the regular models end up fused, try printing the xtraTol models instead.
Scaling up should work fine, scaling down could be problematic as the tolerances are designed to be pretty tight at normal scale.
If you want to print and sell this model, keep in mind that it is released under a Creative Commons Attribution license. My interpretation of this license is the following.
- If you sell or give away prints of this model, you need to provide attribution. This means you must always provide a clearly visible reference to the source of the model, both on the webpage where you sell or display the model, and on a piece of paper included with each physical product. This is a very easy requirement that does not incur any significant extra cost. Here is an example of a full attribution message:
“Mini Clamp Print-in-place by DrLex on GitHub, released under a Creative Commons Attribution license.”
For the required attribution message on your website/store, simply copy the above line, ensure the hyperlink to this GitHub page is preserved (or re-add it), and you're done.
As for the physical printed object, put a similar message on a piece of paper. Print it, write it, 3D print it, I don't care as long as it's there. Simplest is to use the ready-to-print attribution cards in PDF format that can be found in this repository. - If you remix this model and you sell prints of that remix, the origin should be attributed as described in the previous point. You can change the message to: “Based on Mini Clamp Print-in-place by DrLex.” You don't need to use the same attribution cards, but it must be obvious that your prints were derived from my model, and must provide a link to this GitHub page.
- You are not obliged to make the 3D model for a remix available, this is not a
SAlicense. If you do publish the 3D model, it must have the sameCC BYlicense or a more restrictive one. You must provide a visible link to this GitHub page wherever your remixed model is published. - You do not need to ask explicit permission from me to sell prints of this model or a remix. Just do the above. Of course it is fine for you to drop me a message, but you don't need to.
- You do not need to share profits, although of course you may. On my site you can find a few ways to donate, should you want to.
To comply with the Creative Commons Attribution license, you need to provide attribution, which is really simple.
- If you display photos of the 3D model or 3D printed copies on a webpage: add the same kind of attribution message as when selling objects. In other words, this one:
“Mini Clamp Print-in-place by DrLex on GitHub, released under a CC BY license.”
If there really is no way to provide hyperlinks, the above line of text, possibly as a text overlay in the image, suffices because it contains enough information for people to find this source page, but you must provide links when possible. - If you show the model or prints of it in a video: include the same message, either spoken, in a text overlay, or in the video's ‘end credits.’ If the video has a separate textual description, add the same message with link as above.