3D printed soft jaws

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Karlito26

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I was wondering if anyone had done this. I have been wrapping copper around the jaws and at times becomes a hassle.

Questions come to mind. Is it practical? Would the helical potion of the jaw be strong enough as you screw and hold things in place? Can the helical portion be made of stronger plastic than the clamping area?
 
A potential better solution would be to 3D print "caps" for the jaws, similar to what you have with your copper wrap. The caps could be printed to a friction fit or some other capture method.

The answer to your question though is ... probably. But it all depends on how much force you need, what you are holding and other variables. One can print from nylon, which is quite strong. Doing a multi-material print increases the complexity of the design process.
 
In my experience, probably not. 3D printed plastic tends to be "squishy" under load, and that's not going to work well with the threads. It may work as a cap, but once again, the caps may degrade quickly. Things like nylon require special conditions like an enclosed printing environment, and high-temperature hot-ends. A stock printer usually can't do this. There's other "exotic" materials that may work too, but the cost is prohibitive.
 
Not really true Mike. I print Nylon on my Prusa printer. Not a big deal.
Taulman is what I use for that.
 
Thanks for the replies. I will try a cap method. Since my brother just got a printer Ill give him something to do!
 
7milesup said:
Not really true Mike. I print Nylon on my Prusa printer. Not a big deal.
Taulman is what I use for that.
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Nice! what temp does it print at? I've always heard of high temps being required (>250C) and that's above your average stock print head. Easy to do with mods though. :)
 
You got it. 250 to 260. 90c to 95c on the bed temp, yeah, it is hot! ;)

I don't like to use that though because I'm always afraid that something, other than the filament, is going to melt. LOL
My go-to is PETG.
 
My brother had mentioned Thingiverse. I looked them up and they have a lot of cool things there.
This site has some great help. Thanks guys!
 
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