Fence insulator

Had the insulators at the end of one of my fence lines give way, and I didn't feel much like driving to town to get the appropriate replacements, so in about the same time it would have taken me to drive there and back, I modeled and printed one (if the story ended there, it would be nice, but the first one I printed failed in a day, but this revised version has been up for 2-weeks now with no indication of failing). 

Screw holes fit a standard #9 screw (#8 will also work fine I suspect). DO NOT overtighten the screws, the heads will become wedges and split the tensioner like butter, especially if you're using an impact driver (ask me how I know). 

Should fit just about any wire fence, as we use 12 1/2g aluminum, and I don't know that you can get larger fence wire, nor why you would want to. I suppose a smaller gauge wire may cause more stress on the print, but I'm not a mechanical engineer, so I say go for it!

The top of the screw hole to the bottom is just shy of 30mm or 1.25", so choose your screw length accordingly. 

I also created an in-line version, but have not printed it or used it. Figured it would take me just a few seconds to make the change and if someone finds it useful, great. 

For a 0.4mm nozzle, I would recommend 10 perimeters and 10 top and bottom layers (and whatever infill you feel like since part strength is influenced vastly more by the number of walls than it is by infill percentage). 

For other nozzle sizes, adjust accordingly. 

Print as oriented, with or without supports (I used supports, but I'm confident it only marginally helped). For the in-line version, you could flip the orientation if you wanted, since it's not under strain the direction of the layer's won't matter. 

*Don't judge the wire wrapping on the middle line in the photo, my wife did that one!