Contour Duplicator

thingiverse

This is my model of a versatile tool that can duplicate the contour of various objects. The item consists of three main components (body, center support, and pegs). You need to print two body pieces (top and bottom), one center piece, and optionally spacers. Additionally, you'll require four small M3 screws along with four M3 nuts. I strongly advise cutting small strips of felt to place between the top and bottom pieces and the pins. Cut small pieces to use as spacers as well, and you will be able to "fine tune" the tension on the pins so that they slide smoothly yet retain their position. Using felt significantly improves usability by allowing the pegs to move smoothly while still retaining their position. This design enables you to duplicate the contour of objects up to 180 mm long/wide with a depth of slightly over 27 mm. Since you have the STL, you can resize this to your liking. My pins are 2 mm thick, which provides reasonable resolution allowing you to easily duplicate most contours. You can change this very easily, although from experience I know that thinner pegs may be too flexible. If there is excessive friction preventing smooth movement of the pegs, you can optionally print the small spacer blocks (I used TPU to allow varying tension). 10-3-2019: A longer peg option was added which will help keep pegs from interfering with each other due to edges catching. 4-20-2020: Eighty and ninety mm pegs were added to further reduce interference from adjacent peg edges.