Plane of Bend Bracket

thingiverse

Simple plane of bend bracket for use with a smartphone as an angle finder. I thought it would make a fun project rather than just buying a bracket and angle finder off the shelf. Cost is something like $10 or so versus maybe more than $60 for off the shell solutions. Some notes: - I designed the bracket intended to help me with bending 3/8" OD tube - it might work for slightly larger or smaller diameter tubing but feel free to edit the files yourself - The phone holder is sized for an iPhone 11 with silicone case - There is a parallel and perpendicular version of the phone holder for taking different angle measurements of the tube - There are two versions of the bracket - I think the thicker one feels a bit nicer and at least for the parallel version can give a little bit more length over which to take the angle measurement - Brass inserts are required - mine are M3 X 5 mm long X 5.4 mm OD - M3 x 10 mm countersunk screws - The nut trap fits a 5/16-18 nut - The push bolt I liked best is McMaster-Carr 90079A589, but any 5/16-18 bolt with enough length and thread could work - I sized the cap for the bolt so you'd need to adjust for your own if you use a different product - The bolt cap is simply to avoid scratching the tube - may be helpful if you are doing as aesthetic project (e.g., water cooling tubes for PC) - I've uploaded the cadquery files as well so you can modify - I know they are a bit of a mess (programmatic approaches to CAD are a bit new to me) Printing: - I printed in PETG: I think that PLA might be too brittle to be good for this use as it's easy to strain the plastic and the PETG has been pretty forgiving - I used a 0.6 mm nozzle with 0.48 mm layer height and was happy with the results - I used a 35% gyroid infill, but I think you could experiment with others and still have success - With my settings I think it came out to < $3 or so to print one bracket and phone holder set