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After designing my snap-in access door a few months back, I knew that I had to figure out how to make a snap-in sprung door. And, while I did not put a lot of time into it, it took me a lot longer to figure out than I had anticipated. But in the end, I am super happy with it…
This is a direct replacement for the commercially made ones and serves the exact same purpose: covering a hole in your wall material. Sometimes, you need to cut into your wall and keep the opening, and other times, I am just too lazy to fill the hole permanently. Either way, this snap-in panel is fantastic. It looks good and draws no attention.
Operation is simple: just press the sliding edge of the snap-in panel onto one side of an 8-inch x 8-inch hole, and compress the compliant spring far enough that you can rotate the panel and get the fixed edge of the snap-in panel into the hole. Release the spring pressure, and the panel is held into the hole by the remaining spring tension.
The compliant spring system is quite robust, but I nonetheless recommend printing the spring part with PETG. PLA worked fine in my testing,g but I do not know if it will perform as well over time.
Print Settings
Functional designs (such as this one) generally require more strength than non-functional designs and more strength than the typical default slicer settings provide, so please review your slicer settings carefully.
This product was designed for a 0.4mm nozzle, a 0.2mm layer height. For best results I suggest the following:
- Material = PLA / PETG for the panel, PETG for the spring part.
- Nozzle = 0.4mm
- Layer Height = 0.2mm
- Line Width = 0.4mm
- Wall Count = 4 (1.6mm)
- Top and Bottom Layer Count = 5
- Detect Thin Walls = ON
- Wall Generator = Arachne
- Infill = 40% (Cubic)
- Support = None required
- Print orientation = As per the STL/3MF files and the included image
Assembly Notes
After printing, the parts go together as illustrated.
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