Lab-Frame for Fume Hood Do-It-Yourself Kit

thingiverse

Need a lab-frame for your fume hood but don't have the lab budget to buy a pre-made one for hundreds or thousands of dollars? I share your pain! This is a first prototype of all the plastic connectors needed to make your own! Plastic parts were printed at 100% infill in PETG to improve strength when delicate laboratory equipment is attached to it. The metal rods were all purchased from a local home improvement store and the total cost was under fifty dollars. The modularity of the system allows you to use different lengths or number of rods, but to replicate this exact setup, you would need: 3x 2-foot threaded rods, 7/16-14 4x 1-foot threaded rods, 3/8-16 4x 3-foot rod, 1/4" diameter 15x nuts, 7/16-14 4x nuts, 3/8-16 All parts needed to stand up to laboratory conditions, so threaded nuts were used to hold horizontal bars at place, rather than risking using plastic threads in the parts themselves. This also allows easy adjustment of the height of each horizontal bar by turning the nuts. The overall scaffold is fairly sturdy, but has a small amount of side-to-side wobble. It might be prudent to add an additional diagonal rod across the back to tighten this up, but I have not investigated this. With my printer tolerances, the smooth rods slid nicely into plastic fittings, but a bit of tape around the rod to tighten the fit or a drop of glue to make the connection more permanent might be warranted. Improvement suggestions are welcomed!