Support clip for roof lamp

thingiverse

I had the straightforward task of cleaning the glass on our living room lamp. Simple enough, you'd think, but it quickly turned into a frustrating experience when I tried to bend the clip that held the glass in place so I could remove it. Click... and I was left holding the plastic support piece - or at least half of it. I was then able to easily pull out the glass, just as I wanted, but it no longer stayed securely in its original position. And to make matters worse, I realized that this wasn't the first time it had happened, since there was already a broken support clip still in place. So, I decided to take on the challenge of creating some replacement support clips since there were some unused holes available. There was no need to destroy any more parts of the lamp by trying to remove the plastic pieces that were now stuck due to my less-than-gentle handling. The new parts turned out well and quite flexible, and I printed them first in black PLA just to get the prototypes done. And yes, I was asked if I was serious about replacing non-visible clips with black ones. But I simply said no... not trying to explain that 3D printing often involves prototyping first before moving on to real prints. The third iteration came out great and I decided to print it with translucent PLA, which I had ready to use. It does a good job of blending in with its surroundings in a way that's not too noticeable. I thought I'd share this experience with the community because it might help someone else who's facing a similar issue. And further more, people here like to remix or learn from shared source files like Fusion 360 or OpenSCAD.