wall-mount adjustable air vent

This project has been a pain in the neck to produce ! Let's call it a challenge :-) !

The excellent original design comes from Hartvik (really nice, all of it, efficient design, simple and clean)

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3195581

I tried (hard) to adapt this design to my needs : a rounded wall-mount adjustable air vent instead of the squared original one.

But quickly, if the design is not WATER TIGHT (this is the important feature...), then cura ... makes it solid for you ! There's plastic filled everywhere... even where you don't want it ! Manually fixing the adapted design was getting time crazy. Adapting is rarely the way to go. Starting from scratch, always rewarding. Still. The screw design is scary !

So i had to pay special attention to make a water tight design (not a messy one...)

For reference I use the 2017 free version of sketchup. I used the "union" plugin (it works only on "solid" items).

Because i ve had no success "stealing" from Hartvik design (pity because his screw-nut coupling is really smooth), i used an other strategy.

I ve been "stealing" the screw and nut from Mistertech excellent design, here :

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2076034

The result was not perfect. The screw was "wobbling". 0.5 mm play on both side of the screw. Too much.

In this design i tried to avoid "massive use" of support because i don't like the surface result. Still for the spindle you need to use support.

For the infill i used GYROID because i ve read it was the best compromise strength wise.

For the bottom and top, i used CONCENTRIC pattern for aesthetic reasons and 4 layers for the tops. (only 2 layers for the bottom, the heated bed helps a lot in making a great surface, no need for extra layers).

The design consists of 3 parts :

1. the base (about 4 hours) - 12% density zig zag support and 10% gyroid infill

2. the spindle (about 4 hours)

3. the screw (about 20 minutes)

Note : spindle has been printed with different support angle. The outer shell is still good looking at 84° in cura. The downside is on the inner shell (more "wiry looking"). I m quite sure it could work with no support at all (but i didn't try it...)

Things to improve :

• groove on the base
• wobbling on the screw (make it bigger probably)
• snap in screw slightly too big

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Update :

• groove in base has been made larger
• snap-in screw made slightly bigger (works better)
• models updated and old ones removed

Still to be improved :

• make bigger walls in base (not enough air proof)
• switch upside down screw in base model
• maybe integrate the screw in the spindle (the alignment must be perfect).

Category: Household