pin, radiused, flattened for horizontal printing

thingiverse

This is a simple cylinder with rounded ends, flattened on the bottom for FDM printing. Head optional. It can work as a pin, a peg, a shaft, a dowel pin, a roll pin, a rod, swizzle stick, etc... It is flattened on the bottom to be printed flat on a surface, to eliminate overhangs and strength. The flat allows good adhesion to a FDM bed, and printing flat provides for strength and flexibility along the length of the part. This picture shows you can bend a horizontally printed 2mm shaft 180° (PLA) and it doesn't break:  This photo shows a set of differently sized pins with heads pinning a couple hole test pieces, a long 2mmx100mm rounded-end shaft, and a short 5mm shaft:  The set of pins shows the use of a loop in an OpenSCAD file to print the array of differently sized parts all at once. it also shows the flattened edges on the nail-like pins. The white part with the holes is my https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5564505 The length, diameter, and overhang angle for printing flat can be customized. A head can also be created For maximum strength, print flat and use lots of perimeters to align the fibers with the length. The default flat limits the overhang angle to 45°, cutting off a chord containing about 9% of the area of a full diameter. The .scad file can also create an array of parts, such as 50 copies of a 100mm X 1mm diameter rod, or a set of 2-10mm diameter rods. (Plates included)