Tent Support Tip

thingiverse

Why pay $5.95 (US) for a replacement part when you can spend dollars on a 3D printer, filament, and replacement parts? Because you can! This was my first creation from start to finish. It is a replacement tent support tip for my Coleman popup trailer. The original tip had sheared off, forcing me to drill it out in chunks due to the tight fit. I created this in OpenSCAD, printed a hollow 0.1mm thick test using quick print settings (Cura 15.04 on an Hictop 3DP-17), and adjusted the model once in OpenSCAD (the test print was the same diameter as the outside of the pole - I forgot to subtract wall thickness). This is the final version. I printed it in high-quality mode with 45% infill for strength, using PLA since I hadn't gotten any ABS yet. It took some sanding to get it to fit snugly into the support pipe, but the tip turned out perfectly. It only took 1.5 hours to complete the final print, which I installed just before the rain hit (otherwise, the roof would collect water and leak). Update: The original survived my week-long camping trip, but when I returned home and set up the trailer for cleaning, the tip sheared off again. So much for 45% infill. I wanted to reprint with 100% infill, but even on quick print, it would use a lot of material. So, back to OpenSCAD for a quick edit. This new version features a hollow base with a 2mm wall thickness. The rest remains unchanged. With 100% infill, it prints in approximately 2 hours.