Printing Threads - Success! (Print-in-place beer tap handle)  

Printing Threads - Success! (Print-in-place beer tap handle)

Long story short, after a move, I lost the tap handles for my kreezer. Rather than buy new ones for $5 each, I spent a couple hours designing and testing printing threads, so I could have my own print-in-place tap handle:

And...it worked! Taps had 3/8" UNC threads. After a couple of tries:

I got the clearance set so that it threaded onto the tap just as you'd expect a threaded item to do. No modifications after printing, so no need to run a tap (no pun intended) through the hole, or insert a nut or threaded insert:

The trick with FreeCAD was to use the PartDesign_Hole, make it threaded, and use Custom Thread - Clearance to adjust the threads so that the final printed product is capable of easily threading onto the tap. Trying to use the tolerance class 1B (the loosest UNC tolerance) made a thread that was too tight to thread onto the tap without difficulty, and probably wouldn't have been able to fully thread on.

So now that I've verified the thread works as printed, my MINI+ is working away printing the full tap handle, so that my kreezer has actual handles instead of just stubs that are somewhat difficult to operate.

The end goal here was not to spend a lot of time to make a part easily available for $5, but to learn if it was possible to print working threads this size (it is!), and to get a working base for a tap handle, so that I can custom design a cool or funky looking tap handle for future homemade beers and ciders, and just be able to screw it onto the tap instead of some kludged together mounting method (which I've seen on Printables so far).

So after these basic ones are done and working, I'm going to work on other ones, such as ones that have swappable notes or signs to indicate what it's serving, etc. Eventually working up to some custom full-size tap handles. But those are more artistic, and I'm better at functional, so we'll see...

In any case, this is seriously some of the most fun I've had with my 3D printer. There's nothing quite like sitting down at a CAD program, making a design for something I need, then watching it print off in a matter of hours (or less), and ending with a functional part that does what I need.

P.S. "Kreezer" is a portmanteau of "freezer" and "kegerator", to describe a homemade kegerator made from a freezer, typically a chest freezer.

P.P.S. Yes, this will be available on Printables later today. I have a draft ready to publish there, I just need to finish printing the part so I can take a picture of it in-use. Whenever I see a part on Printables or elsewhere without a picture of the final printed product, I assume the author never tested printing the actual part.