1 Inch Steel Pipe Coupler

thingiverse

My wife wanted to hang curtains around our backyard patio, but we were unable to find any strong, seamless, weatherproof metal curtain rods. So, we bought some 1" galvanized steel pipe from Home Depot along with 1" curtain rod holders (hooks?). We have a 14-foot section on our patio and the longest pipe we could find was 10 feet. Therefore, I made this little coupler to join two sections of pipe together. The coupler is designed so that you can twist each pipe clockwise. Just make sure you get roughly half of the coupler in each pipe. Note that this is not meant to support the full weight of a 10-foot steel pipe (you're printing plastic, you know!). When you connect two pipes together, make sure you support it on both ends. Also, make sure your curtain rod supports are positioned to support each pole properly. Depending on the pipe you buy, you may have to scale the diameter (x & y dimensions) by a little bit. This size worked for me with the pipe I bought and my two printers. YMMV. Any resolution should work. You won't see the part, so a fast print at a low resolution should be fine. When checking the size, print this about 10mm tall instead of the full 50mm. 10mm is enough to check the fit, but it prints pretty quickly (about 10-15 minutes, depending on your printer settings).