Large Nut and Bolt

thingiverse

I crafted a nut and bolt set for my two-year-old grandson, who loves playing with them. The large threads on the bolt work smoothly and spin easily, thanks to the generous tolerance I built into the design. My grandson can quickly assemble the parts by hand, and he enjoys learning how to bolt things together. To make the printing process easier, I used a Monoprice Dual head printer with an ABS bed temperature of 105°C and a head temperature of 225°C. The PEI surface on the print bed minimized warping, allowing me to print without supports or rafts at a 20% infill rate. A three-outline skirt ensured that the print head was functioning properly. My FlashForge Creator Pro printer is equipped with a variety of settings: no rafts, no supports, a resolution of 0.2 mm, and an infill percentage of 20%. I designed this project in OnShape, where creating threads was relatively straightforward. To make the knurled head on the bolt, I used a combination of twisting, duplicating, and mirroring the thread design, then performed a Boolean subtraction to remove excess material. However, designing the nut with internal threads proved slightly more challenging. To compensate for this, I added a bit more clearance so that the nut could spin freely on the shaft, making it easier for my grandson to assemble the pieces. OnShape's ability to create drawings from designs quickly and easily allowed me to print an exploded view of the parts with isometric views for instructions. Even at two years old, my grandson was able to understand these visual aids and follow along.