PVC fort maker kit variation

thingiverse

I attempted to use the previous fort-maker kit, and the first thing I did was immediately snap the piece off where the layers meet. Then I found that the pieces are a little inconsistent where one leg is too tight for a child to get it into the PVC, and the other two legs were too loose. Then the straight flat ends made it difficult to shove into a pvc. So I started from scratch. All the legs of the connector should come out the same size. I used a cone shape so it is narrow on the end and expands so that you can snug it into a PVC and it can accommodate variations in the size of the pipe. I also rounded the edges so there is more surface-area grabbing the inside of the pipe, and rounded the tip so it is easier to get into a pipe. I rounded the center piece just for aesthetics. Initially I had the outside set to 14mm and the peg grew to 16mm near the center of the connector. It turns out that much slope makes the peg want to jump back out of the pipe. I re-created the model so it is closer to 14.7 on the outside and 16 on the inside and the connectors stay together much better but are still very easy to insert. Combine these with a few 2-foot lengths of 1/2-inch PVC pipe (My PVC from home depot has an inner-diameter of 15mm, and I cut them to about 61cm long) and you have the makings for a fort I'm printing these on low-quality (0.28mm layer height), but with a shell-thickness of 1.2mm. I notice that Cura's slicer tries to make one layer float in the air, but otherwise the model prints fine for me. I set brims for adhesion, and with a very clean print bed the Ender 5 has been cranking these out without issue. Also - the much longer pegs make this less of a choking hazard if you have younger siblings around.