Magnetic Pushpin (10mm)

thingiverse

QUICK DESCRIPTION: Don't bother with the first three files since they turn out incredibly fragile due to poorly planned design elements. They're just there to document my learning process and testing methods. Print v3 if you have an older printer which struggles with overhangs, or v4 if you have a newer printer and are feeling adventurous. NEW: v5 goes back to the v3 style but has the flat surface of v4 making it easier to attach the magnet. These are 16 magnetic push-pins I made for the 10x3mm magnets that I sourced in bulk from Amazon. Printing should be fine without supports, although a raft may not be necessary. The build surface required is only 66x66x20mm, so you can duplicate the object if you want multiples of 16 to print at once or pare them down for fewer push-pins. I also made them 6mm apart, but this spacing may not be ideal. The reason for the unusual and primitive design of the pushpins is to avoid difficult-to-print internal overhangs and bridging, save on material, and speed up printing times. It should be simple to scale this design to fit your magnets' size. You might want to give a 10% or so fudge factor if you're scaling down (e.g., if you have 5mm magnets, scale the object down to 55%, rather than 50%). You can easily calculate the correct scaling by multiplying the current size by (1-factoring in percentage decrease) times (1+fudge factor). For a 25% scaling down, that would be: 10mm * (1-0.25) * (1+0.10), which works out to: 10 * 0.75 * 1.10 = 8.25 mm. PHEW! :D UPDATE: I noticed that the conic surfaces are a bit bumpy and realized that I had forgotten to max out the number of facets in Tinkercad. So, the v2 file is the same except with much smoother surfaces and conic shapes without noticeable faceting (64 faces vs. 15 or so). UPDATE 2: "Magnetic Pushpin (10mm, single).stl" allows you to arrange pushpins however you like, such as arranging them far enough apart to be printed one after the other using Cura's "Print one at a time" setting. UPDATE 3: I finally got to print this file and the handle portion broke off immediately. I have now posted Magnetic Pushpin v3 which has a 3mm thick handle (instead of 1mm thick) for added sturdiness. UPDATE 4: v4 is a totally new design that makes it much easier to install and hold the magnet but is much harder to print. Haven't tried printing it yet, although it should work on a decently high-quality printer using at least 3 walls and 0.1mm or better layer height. UPDAT 5: v5 goes back to the v3 style of pushpin because v4 was just too fragile, although it looked more like a real pushpin. Print v5 at about a 101% scale for some extra room for the magnet to fit properly (this is easier to do in a slicer than it is in Tinkercad). So, v5 is a little more challenging to print due to internal overhang but is much sturdier than v4.