3D Printed Spring Clip

Hello Everyone,

This morning when I woke up, I made a pot of coffee and felt irritated with the bag as I tried to roll it closed and wedge it between the microwave and wall.

I suddenly realized that there was probably a printable solution for this on Thingiverse, and there is.

Most people have seen those potato chip bag clips. For me they are those things that I notice at peoples houses, but I never think to get them myself when out shopping. I suppose they are a low priority in my mind.

But since I'm into 3D printing now and always brainstorming for useful things to print, it occurred to me that I won't ever need to buy one after all :)


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Spring Clip Stronger Remix
by blakehaas July 13, 2021, licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution license.


It came out really good, and now I'll never have to wedge bags of coffee in places where they don't belong.

I utilized a green silk filament for the clip itself, from a company called Veeology. It has a really shiny finish (which will be seen in the photos below) and is attractive for use with something like this.

Since the spring is a separate component, this allowed me to make a mix of colors, and I wouldn't have wanted to use silk filament for the spring anyway because it's a bit brittle after printing.

I have a clear filament by TECBEARS, and it has both good strength as well as flexibility, so I thought it would be perfect for the spring, and this turned out as a success. It has a great feel with a strong amount of spring.

Here are some photos of the spring clip building:




Everything went so smooth with this print, and it was a mesmerizing joy to observe in action.




In this photo the layers can be seen with the silky shine. It was printed at 0.16 mm layer height, and I also opted to use a small raft, which I've been using for most prints lately.

The raft gives much better adhesion to the build plate and drastically reduces elephanting on the bottom layers of the prints.

SuperSlicer(Github) makes it really easy to customize the raft with desired layers and thickness.




It peels right off the part with relative ease and the only downside is that it is a wasteful solution. Even though the amount wasted is small, a gram or two every print will add up after a while. The headache that is saves is worth it though in my opinion, because initial layers can be a real pain, and with a raft, the process is much more forgiving if everything isn't just right. This initial layer being slightly off can ruin an entire print, so a raft is a small price to pay, especially with larger parts.


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So after the clip was done, I uploaded the gcode for the spring and started what would be a forty five minute print. The main clip was just over one hour.


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The results were pretty spectacular with the spring mechanism. I really love this clear stuff and how the layers can be seen so visibly like this :)


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Overall I'm super happy with it, and planning to print a few more tonight so that I have them for bags of potato chips and other things!

What do you guys think of this 3D printed spring clip? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Thank you for stopping by, have a great day! ~~@print3dpro

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