Thumb Screw (M5)

prusaprinters

<p><strong>The Background</strong></p><p>Turn a bolt into a thumbscrew!</p><p>While working on a project where I needed thumbscrews, it because fairly obvious quite quickly that I was going to have to create my own. &nbsp;Initially I purchased a pack from Amazon, but they're pretty expensive for what they actually are, and I also needed some different diameters for various parts of my project, so a consistent look was desirable.</p><p>I've created something similar before, but went back to the drawing board to knock up this design quickly.</p><p>I was able to buy some M5 bolts with the correct length for 10% of what I was going to spend on off-the-shelf thumbscrews, so on this project that represented a huge saving.</p><p><strong>The Design</strong></p><p>The design consists of 4 parts:</p><ul><li>1 x M3 hex bolt of the desired length.</li><li>1 x Body</li><li>1 x Cap</li><li>1 x Spacer</li></ul><p>Assembling is easy, push the head of the bolt into the recess of the body and ensure that the bolt is straight. &nbsp;The cap then goes over the thread and is pushed down to be flush with the body. &nbsp;Finally (and optional!) I provide a simple spacer which will create a small gap between the thumbscrew and the object it is screwed into.</p><p>I recommend gluing the cap and body parts, this will keep everything secure, especially when tightening up the thumbscrew.</p><p>That's it really, it's a very simple design that is cheap and can be printed out on demand.</p>