Design hints for heat set inserts

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ik2012
 
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Design hints for heat set inserts

Post by ik2012 »

Hi all,

Apologies if this is the wrong section. I have a set of the 4mm Heat set inserts (ID: 4255) on order and would love to get a recommendation for what size hole to reliably mount them in PLA. Thanks in advance

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Design hints for heat set inserts

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

It varies depending on your printer, print settings and to some extend the filament too. For various reasons, most printers tend to print holes a little undersized. So you may want to do a test print or two to determine how your printer/filament combination prints holes.

On my old UP Plus-2 printer, I would just design with 4mm holes and they would work great with 4mm inserts. However, for best results, there are some other refinements such as wall thickness, taper and clearance for displaced material. Hackaday has a nice article on the subject here: https://hackaday.com/2019/02/28/threadi ... t-inserts/

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ik2012
 
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Re: Design hints for heat set inserts

Post by ik2012 »

Thanks for that link, very informative. I went with a 4.18 mm hole and a depth of 5 mm. Everything worked great with the stock "super draft" settings at 5% infill in Prusa Slicer. Printed on an Ender 3 Pro. The insert seated itself and a few seconds of light pressure with the iron and the job was done!

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stormbard
 
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Re: Design hints for heat set inserts

Post by stormbard »

I recently purchased this as well and had the same question. Is there a data sheet for the inserts?

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ik2012
 
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Re: Design hints for heat set inserts

Post by ik2012 »

Not from Adafruit unfortunately. In my pack of M3 inserts the nominal diameter is 4.18 mm. Give yourself an extra mm of depth at least to account for the melted plastic. 5mm depth worked great for me.

McMaster Carr also sells inserts, they may have mechanical drawings available for a similar size.

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