Fly Swatter for small print bed

thingiverse

This was primarily an exercise in modeling something bigger than the standard print bed size of 120x120mm. The fly swatter shafts, along with the swatter head and the wall-hanger hook, are all terminated in locking scarf joints. These joints can be assembled by fitting the tabs of two opposing joints into each other, and then inserting a small "key" piece into the remaining void space. The fit is very tight, so it may be necessary to shave one end of the key slightly or crush it with pliers to get it inserted into the slot. It's essential that the joints are printed on their sides as provided in the STLs to improve the strength of the tabs. Twenty percent infill should be sufficient. I haven't had this printed for long, but the joints seem reasonably strong so far. If additional reinforcement is desired, a "sleeve.stl" can be printed vertically with a brim. This sleeve will fit over a joint and can be glued in place or fused with a 3D pen. The swatter head was printed in PETG due to its supposed strength advantage over PLA. I suspect any type of PLA other than the standard "natural" variety would likely work as well. Update 1/8/19: To avoid shaving the keys, I updated the key.stl file to have one smaller end. Additionally, my swatter handle broke just below the first joint on the segment closest to the wall hook, so it's recommended that a sleeve be added over that joint for extra support.