A small traditional test for determining the amount of compensation required for engineering parts with 3D printers.
What’s special about it?
Sharp corners are notoriously difficult to create perfectly, especially on a 3D printer and this often affects the final fit of the parts negatively. Fortunately, there are ways to reduce this effect.
By utilizing a similar strategy used in the top row of the test, or by chamfering a part’s corners, as seen on one of the pegs, considerably closer tolerances can be achieved!
Use this test to discover what that potential is.
How to Use
Print the test and the pegs.
Some cleaning of the test or pegs may be required. Printing slower will make for a much better first layer which is critical here, and less clean up.
Insert each type of peg across each row, starting from the left and working your way right until the peg is first capable of being inserted fairly well without slippage to determine a minimum compensation amount for printer inaccuracy.
The holes represent a width of 10MM plus whatever number found at the bottom of the column.
Each peg represents a width of 10 MM. If the 10MM peg can only fit in the 10.4 hole, for example, then touching parts in an assembly must subtract the total extra amount in order to ensure fit.
If engineering a part with a designated fit, be it a press fit or a loose or sliding fit, that dimension is subsequently added or subtracted to the number debugged above.
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