You can find inserts on McMaster-Carr (pn: 92160a115) or on Tindie. Using a tip without a taper makes it easy to remove the tip once the insert is installed. These “installation tips” aren’t particularly special, but, unlike soldering iron tips, they aren’t tapered. I use an insert “installation tip” combined with a budget 40W soldering iron from Amazon without any temperature control. That displaced plastic needs to go somewhere, and it usually ends up mushed at the bottom of the insert. Finally, don’t forget that when we install the insert, we’re displacing molten plastic to make space for the heat-set insert. In our case, though, we’re installing by hand, so we’ll need to keep our timing in mind. In large scale manufacturing, this process is done by machine. The longer time spent inserting the part, the more time the heat has to travel into the part where it can deform the surrounding part areas. Rather, we first heat the insert and then conduct that heat into the surrounding material such that the hole deforms, accommodating the larger shape of the insert.Īs more time elapses, heat transfers from the insertion tool, through the insert from surface area contact, and finally outwards into our 3D-printed part, where it dissipates. Installation holes are smaller than the inserts themselves (they’re undersized), so we can’t install inserts by hand force. Let’s consider thinking about this process in terms of heat transfer. Once installed, removing the heat-source causes this molten plastic to re-solidify around the inserts’ knurled feature, holding it in place. Heat-set inserts work by softening the surrounding material as they’re being installed. Since 3D-printing relies on oozing plastic out of nozzles, literally every single 3D-printed material fits the definition for thermoplastic–so they’ll all work! As far as matching techniques go, it’s almost like these inserts were made for each other! (Alas they weren’t, but thankfully injection-molding plastic has made these parts a commodity.) Heat-set inserts are stock parts that add threads to a part made from a thermoplastic. Join me below as I fill in the knowledge gaps (and some literal ones too) to send you back to the lab equipped with a technique that will give you perfectly-seated inserts every time. (In fact, I encourage you to look there first for a good jump-start.) Over the years though, I’ve added my own finishing move (nothing exotic or difficult) which I call the Plate-Press Technique that gives me a major boost in consistency. Make no mistake there are a handful of insert guides already out there. As someone who’s been installing them into plastic parts for years manually, I think many guides overlook some process details crucial to getting consistent results. Today I’d like to share some tips on one of my favorite functional 3D-printing techniques: adding heat-set inserts. We can make our 3D-printed parts even more capable when we start mixing them with some essential “mechanical vitamins.” By combining prints with screws, nuts, fasteners, and pins, we get a rich ecosystem for mechanism-making with capabilities beyond what we could simply print alone.
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