It’s not quite “bend, fold or mutilate” but this project comes close– it actually manufactures a spring clip for [Super Valid Designs] PETAL light system. In the video (embedded below) you’ll see why this tool was needed: by-hand manufacturing worked for the prototype, but really would not scale.
The lights themselves might be worthy of a post, being a modular, open source DMX stage lighting rig. Today though we’re looking at how they are manufactured– specifically how one part is manufactured. With these PETAL lights, the lights slot into a base station, which obviously requires a connection of some sort. [Super Valid Designs] opted for a spring connector, which is super valid.
It’s also a pain to work by hand: spring steel needed to be cut to length, hole punched, and bent into the specific shape required. The hand-made springs always needed adjustment after assembly, too, which is no good when people are giving you money for objects. Even when using a tent-pole spring that comes halfway to meeting their requirements, [Super Valid Designs] was not happy with the workflow.
Enter the press: 3D Printed dies rest inside a spring-loaded housing, performing the required bends. Indeed, they were able to improve the shape of the design thanks to the precision afforded by the die. The cutting step happens concurrently, with the head of a pair of tin snips mounted to the jig, and a punch finishes it off. All of this is actuated with a cheap, bog simple , hand-operated arbor press. What had been tedious minutes of work is reduced to but a moment of lever-pushing.
It great story about scaling and manufacturing that may hopefully inspire others in their projects. Perhaps with further optimization and automation, [Super Valid Designs] may find himself in the market for a modular conveyor belt design.
While this process remains fundamentally manual, we have seen automation in maker-type businesses before, like this coaster-slinging CNC setup. Of course automation doesn’t have to be part of a business model; sometimes it’s nice just to skip a tedious bunch of steps, like when building a star lamp.
Beautiful and detailed video.
I wonder what the tent peg springs are made out of? Would they just be a plated mild steel or something fancier?
I’d love to be able to make my own arbitrary spring contacts, the closest I have gotten is by ordering a few meters of phosphor bronze 0.8mm wire (which cost most of $50AUD because few people order it in small quantities). It sometimes works, but having only one size & type is annoying. Some rolls of narrow flat material would be awesome.
You could try the strips that are sold to link 18650 cells together.
There is pure nickel strip. There is also nickel-plated steel strip like this:
https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005007938291996.html
However, be careful when adapting material for application A to your own application B.
Nice! Loved the design process of the clip as well as the press!
A few years ago I had a need to make lots of square holes in pieces of metal. These were cabinet brackets rated for 300lbs, so rather thick for sheet metal. I did the first few by drilling a 3/8″ hole and using a metal nibbling tool to square it off. The result look crap, but mostly worked. But snipping the metal away was time consuming and resulted in lots of pinch blisters…
I found a 3/8″ Enerpac SPD-549 Square Punch and Die Set for $75 (currently $800+ on amazon.com) and 3D printed a really similar device to hold the punch and die. It worked great in my HF cheapo “20 ton” press. I was able to rattle off 30 remaining square holes quickly and without any more pinch blisters. And more importantly with re-pinch blistering and of the existing pinch blisters…
I keep meaning to publish the files for that one. It could easily be adapted to fit other tools (including other Enerpac punch and die sets. Oh, if I remember correctly the recommend tool to use the Enerpac punch and die sets cost ~$3500.
I mean I see it working, so no qualms there its just in your application
They might indeed:
https://hackaday.com/2023/12/31/diy-tube-lights-look-amazing-for-just-50-a-piece/
Your Google-Fu has bested my WordPress-search-jitsu. I shall retire in shame to edit the article.
haha i hate the video of course but i like seeing this design that uses metal where it needs to. it really is amazing how strong 3d printed plastic is if it’s not mostly under compression, just defining a shape more than handling the distance of a lever arms. happy to see someone seems to be using what it’s good at