10mm Beams

thingiverse

Here's a selection of 10mm square beams, totaling 60 pieces. They range from 10mm to 300mm in increments of 10mm, and there are six different profiles designed to be scalable for your project needs. The images provided give a clear idea of what these beams look like. I primarily use them with brackets and plates to test frame designs and filament annealing. To assemble the beams, simply drill a 2mm hole and insert self-tapping screws. Preheating the screw tip with a flame creates a perfect self-forming thread that minimizes the risk of stress fractures in the plastic. When printing these beams in vertical orientation, they produce an excellent result and exhibit surprisingly high strength when using PLA+ filament. However, printing them horizontally can lead to flex and bowing during the printing cycle if they are not firmly secured to the main bed. To correct bowed beams, a heat gun can be used to straighten them and help alleviate internal tension in the filament. Note that annealing PLA+ and other filaments is still an area of ongoing research and development (R&D), but here's some informative data on the glass transition of plastics: http://pslc.ws/macrog/tg.htm. -=Mindless=-