The NEW toothpaste squeezer with ratchet

thingiverse

Because there was a little problem with the 'ratchet blocking-finger' (it tends to break if printed in PLA) in the old version (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3433029) I designed this new version with a swappable ratchet lock. In case you break it you just have to print this one part and not the whole body. On the other hand you can print the lock easily side oriented, which will give it a bit more strenght. Nevertheless, I strongly recommend printing at least this part in ABS or PLA+. To avoid disapointing at least one specific user this thing includes of course a 'tomato version' which can be used for tubes up to 75mm in width ;^) To build this thing you will need an additional bolt M3x12 (round or hex head) and a M3 nut. IMORTANT: I've designed a knob to hold the M3 bolt, but every time I try to scale it down to 100% Sketchup ruins it completely, just like the ratchet itself. That's why these specific files (marked as 'xxx_upscaled.stl') have to be scaled down to 10% in your slicer. If your slicer gives you a warning (as Cura did for me) you should run your repair tool (i.e. 'Mesh tools' in Cura) before printing. It worked fine for me and the print came out perfectly. The hole in the knob is a little bit to small for M3, but that was intentionally. I usually do this to tap a thread in it so the bold has a bit more grip. If you don't want to use this 'feature' please widen the hole with a round file or just hot-fit the bolt. Because my stupid phone is broken AGAIN I wasn't able to take pictures of the printed thing, but I included some rendered pictures to show the working principle and assembly. I hope you'll like it as much as the old version. If there should be any problems, questions, requests or suggestions please let me know.