Nut Retainer for Weighted Vest

This was designed for my personal use.  If you choose to use this, use at your own risk.  I cannot guarantee the effectiveness or safety of this object and take no responsibility for any injuries sustained from the use or misuse of this design.

I regularly walk long distances wearing a Kensui EZ-VEST(R) (trademark of theirs - I have no affiliation).  I have the older version with full hook-and-loop straps, since I have been using this for a long time.  The problem is that sometimes the plate retention nuts will work themselves loose over long distances of walking.  On the front, it's not too bad - you can just tighten it back down.  But it's much harder to notice when the nut on the back has loosened until it's too late.  After having my back weights drop a couple times, I decided to design up this nut retainer to keep the nut from rotating.

The way this works is that you place the weight plates on the vest, then this nut retainer with the hexagonal recess facing out, and then the nut.  Tighten using the handles, rotate the post if necessary to line up the handles with the weight plates and side straps, and then run the side straps through both the weight plates and nut retainer and affix them to themselves so that the nut retainer can no longer rotate.  See the picture for an idea of how this works.  The nut retainer holds the nut in place so it cannot rotate until you take the straps back off.

I have had the best results printing this in PETG.  I have tried PCTG, and it was a bit too brittle for certain combinations of weight plate stacks.  If you use more than one plate, it needs to have enough flexibility to bend around the smaller plates so the outer handles are close to the largest size plate.  You will also need a large bed for this as it is a large part, although you might be able to get away with a smaller bed if you cut off one of the handles.  But this was made for my use case, and I regularly carry a lot of weight, so it has both sides for extra security.

My weighted vest is their older model with the full hook-and-loop straps on the sides, before they introduced the buckle side straps (I've been using this for quite some time now).  I don't know if it will work with their newer versions.  If not, it should be pretty easy to add some straps to hold this in place.