I was on Instagram when one of those annoying ads popped up for something outrageously expensive but actually useful.
It is a two piece clip, one half fixes to a wall or furniture the other to, say, a power board. It allows you to mount them together out of the way but still allows them to be separated and used for something else or attached elsewhere.
Anyway I got stuck into designing it today. It was frustrating I haven’t used OpenScad since my visitors arrived last October so I was VERY rusty. This is what I have knocked up today.
No stops, no mounting holes, very much a work in progress but I am quite pleased so far - it is scalable so it could be made 2cm wide or 10cm wide for example. some of the maths is a bit sus too and needs refining.
You have to imagine the top part flipped over and sliding into the bottom part.
The code (so far)
//Mounting Clip
//Base Variables
len=100;
wid=50;
thk=3;
rad=5; //corners
//Clip Variables
clplen=len*2/3;
clpwid=thk*2;
clpheyt=(thk*2)+1; //+1 embedded in base
$fn=100;
//Base
union() {
hull(){base(
l=(len/2)-rad/2,
w=(wid/2)-rad,
t=thk,
r=rad
);
}
//Clip
translate([0,wid/4,thk-.5]) {
Clip(clplen,clpwid,clpheyt);
}
translate([0,-wid/4,thk-.5]) {
rotate([180,180,0]){
Clip(clplen,clpwid,clpheyt);
}
}
}
//Top
translate([0,0,20]){
union() {
hull(){base(
l=(len/2)-rad/2,
w=(wid/2)-rad,
t=thk,
r=rad
);
}
//Top Clip
translate([0,-wid/4-clpwid/2-1,thk-.5]) {
Clip(clplen,clpwid,clpheyt);
}
translate([0,wid/4+clpwid/2+1,thk-.5]) {
rotate([180,180,0]){
Clip(clplen,clpwid,clpheyt);
}
}
}
}
module base(l,w,t,r){
translate([l,w,0]) {
cylinder(h=t,r=r);
}
translate([-l,w,0]) {
cylinder(h=t,r=r);
}
translate([-l,-w,0]) {
cylinder(h=t,r=r);
}
translate([l,-w,0]) {
cylinder(h=t,r=r);
}
}
module Clip (d,w,h) {
difference(){
translate([0,0,thk])
cube ([d,w,h],center=true);
translate([0,thk,thk-1])
cube([d+1,w+1,h/2+.5
],center=true);
}
}
There will be many changes before I print one out, for example I might use bevelled edges, proportions are a bit out of kilter but, as I say, for something I haven’t touched for months I was quite pleased with a couple of hours work.