Babygate Tension Adjuster

thingiverse

These are printable components designed to replace missing hardware for several baby gates that were given to us by a friend when we moved into our new home. We received 2 baby gates from Donatonis, who kindly provided them, and they only needed hardware as one piece was missing. The grey piece in my hand is the original unit. The original sample I used had an M8 size thread. Since I only had 1/4" and 5/16" at the office in the lengths I needed for this project, I designed it for both. My particular baby gates worked best with the 5/16" option. They installed smoothly, but didn't have as much slop in them as the original hardware, so they are actually more secure. There are two sets of adjusters, one for 1/4" hardware and one for 5/16" hardware. Use whatever is best for your gate. These components are designed to use SAE spec hardware, so for the 1/4" designs, the head of the bolt and size of the nut need to be 7/16". For the 5/16" designs, the head of the bolt and size of the nut need to be 1/2". I used bolts that were 4-1/2" in length, which was perfect for me. Use whatever you need for your doorway. Just remember that when the gate is tightened into place, there should still be at least 1-1/2" of thread in the gate. Printed in PLA and sliced using S3d. For the feet, I printed with variable infill, with the "solid" bottom portion from the bolt head to the flat face contacting the wall having 90% infill, and the remainder at 50%. This is so that the force applied by the head of the bolt is distributed as evenly as possible. The adjuster was printed at 50% throughout. It's not required, but I used a little Gorilla Glue to secure the feet to the head of the bolt and the nut in the adjuster. However, the tension once installed will keep everything in place. You could put a little rubber nonslip pad from Home Depot on the feet if you wanted, but mine are holding up great, and when I had removed them to check, there was no visible damage or indentation to the door jamb. I hope these components help someone else out as well. Side note, they make great leveling feet and adjusters too. I just put a set on a small work table I built!