Two of the nuts in my tool mount has gotten loose when I screwed in a tool holder. Now it’s just a mess, impossible to fix new nuts in the opening. I’m afraid that I have to make a new tool mount. To avoid the same thing happening again - I’ve been thinking about threaded inserts, that I can hold fast when I screw in bolts from the tools side. What do you think?
or this one: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33045940499.html
I had good luck “friction welding” nuts in a couple of other 3d printed parts. (I haven’t got an MPCNC started yet, but it’s on my list." I chucked a piece of filament in a Dremel and with it spinning just sort of drew molten plastic around the nut I wanted to put in place. I did have it fixed in the location I wanted it to stay with a bolt from the other side. This was with ABS filament, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work with PLA or PETG.
Thanks - this is a great idea! I’ve planned to use friction welding for other applications, but this might be a good solution for this case. I’ll check it out.
Did you originally install them with super glue?
Yes I did - but I think some of the glue filled the nut opening. I didn’t really check it. And when I tried to screw the bolts in from the front, I just kept on, until the nuts loosened, in stead of checking the nut - and thus loosening them, so that they just turned in their sockets.
Well there’s your problem! I seem to remember using the fine tip to drop a couple drops of glue in after placing the nut in the mount being careful to keep it out of the threads.
I wonder if you use these threaded inserts if you’ll have to then use loctite as well?
I watched a youtube video where the guy heated up a brass insert and then pushed it into the 3d filament. Once it was cooled, it was almost impossible to get back out. You could probably do the same thing on the tool mount.
From experience I can say these (heat pressed threaded inserts) work really well IF (big if) you are not using super cheap inserts. This YouTube video compares the different types and how well they hold. I can also say these don’t work as well in PETG printed parts. PLA and ABS are fine.
Heated inserts work best when the hole is sized to leave the right amount of plastic to hold it in place. May not be the best solution for the stripped out nuts in the original post.
They’re typically bigger than an equivalent nut though so you might need to drill them out a bit or just redesign the mount for them and reprint.