Mini Utility Knife Blade Holder

thingiverse

This is a compact fast blade holder for small utility knife blades, outdoing an exacto in robustness but falling short of a stanley blade's bulkiness. It takes just 7 minutes to print and securely holds the blade, thanks to its built-in blade retainer. This trial printing was done with PLA, featuring a long 'bridge' and a 'spring' retainer; once dimensions are optimized, I'll apply this same structure to future projects that require holding these blades. Print Settings: Printer: Reprap Prusa i3 2017 model (from kit) Rafts: No Supports: No Notes: Printed with PLA, it has a long bridge, no support, and needs tweaking once complete. NOTE Print the retainer side down so the large flat side is done last, bridging the entire blade slot. Post-Printing: Cleaning: If the bridge over the void has held firm, nothing further is needed. But... The void for the blade likely requires some 'separating' if the bridge hasn't held up. Simply slipping the blade in and wiggling it a bit works fine - be careful when separating the 'retention' blob; cutting it off may cause the blade to fall out. Levering it was found to be more effective than trying to cut it free. How I Designed This: I measured the blade and iteratively tweaked through 5 prints until I got it right.