Clip with Preload Spring

thingiverse

This design solved the necessity of having a miniature, lightweight clip for holding a ribbon. Because the ribbon was very thin I needed the clip to close firmly and therefore I needed it to be preloaded. I solved this by printing a spring which has to be fit in place before using the clip. The clip also has a stop to avoid over-flexing the clip and it has a hole in the middle to be able to pull from the ribbon (or a paper leaf) evenly. Printing: The part is best printed flat with PetG using a small raft. It can also be printed with PLA, though with not so good results. The flexible parts have a single line width, therefore some care has to be put into setting the printing line width and printing fine walls has to be enabled. It has to be printed external wall first. Verify that the spring and the flexible link look correct in the slicer. I use a paper stuck to the bed as a means to improve adhesion. After printing the gap between the jaws has to be cut open with a sharp edge.