Tent Support Tip by GrueMaster

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Why spend $5.95 (US) on a replacement part when you can spend $$$ on a 3D printer, filament, replacement parts, etc.? Because you can!
This is my first creation, start to finish. It is a replacement tent support tip for my Coleman popup tent trailer. The original tip had sheared off. I had to drill it out in chunks, because of the tight fit.
I made this in OpenSCAD, printed a hollow .1mm thick test on quick print settings (Cura 15.04, Hictop 3DP-17), and adjusted the model in OpenSCAD once (test print was the same diameter as the outside of the pole - forgot to subtract wall thickness). This is the final version.
I printed it in high quality mode with 45% infill for strength, using PLA (I haven't gotten any ABS yet). Took a bit of sanding to get it to fit in the support pipe, but the tip turned out perfect. And it only took 1.5 hours to do the final print, which I installed just before the rains hit (otherwise the roof would collect water and leak).
Update:
Well, the original survived my week of camping, but when I came home and setup the trailer to clean it out, the tip sheared off. So much for 45% infill.
I wanted to reprint with 100% infill, but even on quick print, it would take a lot of material. So, back to OpenSCAD for a quick edit.
This new version has a hollow base with a 2mm wall thickness. The rest is unchanged. 100% infill now prints in ~2 hours.