Intro & The 5 Connectors
Here are five ways how you can connect
your 3D prints completely in your
slicer, split them apart, and then
connect them somehow together. I'm
always going to show you how to make
them, their use cases, and what kind of
issues they might carry with themselves.
So, let's get straight into it, and I'm
going to be showing it in the reality
slicer. Most of the slicers are
basically the same, so hopefully you can
replicate this even inside of your
slicer. So, as the first connector, I
Connector 1: The Dovetail
actually chose doveetail. Dove tail is
something that is super simple yet it is
super effective and I love using dove
tails. As you can see it connects your
3D prints. This is amazing if you are
gluing something together and it
actually allows you to even set what
kind of a distance and what kind of a
clearance do you want to have there. So
if you want it to be just a press fit
and they actually stay together, you can
do it completely within the slicer. So
let me show you exactly how to do that.
So once you have your model in your
slicer you will go and click on it. Once
you click on it, a tool on top right
over here called cut will appear. You
can click it and over here you will have
the chance in the menu to either select
mode planer or the second one is detail
which allows you to cut the part with
the doveetail connector. But you need to
now set the settings of the doveetail
connector in the first place. So first
of all you will edit how you have the
plane positioned. Turn the plane around.
Hopefully, as you can see, put it to 90°
perfectly as you have it. And now you
can see that it's already on the top.
And as you can see, when you adjust the
depth, all that happens is that the
depth of the duct tail increases the
width. That's exactly the same. So, you
can actually play with this setting by
yourself. And over here on the right
side, there's the clearances. I would
highly recommend going for the 0.15 if
you want something that can easily go in
together. And then you can just glue it
because that actually allows for a bit
of space and it is not that hard to
press into. But if you want a much
tighter fit that will actually be a bit
harder to push and will be a lot more
permanent, I would recommend 0.10. This
would give you just a normal dove tail.
So if you right now click on perform
cut, what you will see is that you have
the duct tail created. But what I want
to show you next actually something
completely different because the second
Connector 2: The Groove Angle
type of a cut that we can have is
actually something that has an angle
which is a dove tail again but it has an
angle and it can only go in one
direction right because it is angled and
once it's in there it cannot go anywhere
further. So this is really great for
example if you are making planters or
something like that because you can
actually or not even planters maybe like
hangers for your uh how do you call
these the things in the shower because
you can hang actually anything
you can actually hang it because you
have the detail connection there. So to
do it you will actually again go into
the cut tool. Once you go into the cut
tool, the menu will appear. But in the
dove tail right now, you will select
something called the groove angle
because once you start moving with the
groove angle, as you can see, it starts
angling the dove tail that we have
there. And over here, basically anything
works, but I would recommend going for
something like 10° because that gives it
actually a quite nice angle. So once you
have that, you can just click perform
cut. And as you can see, it again splits
it to two parts. But right now, instead
of being just a very straight duct tail,
it has this kind of nice angle. The next
kind of connector is something that I
Connector 3: The Dowel (Best for Overhangs)
consider to be the most useful if you
are connecting large 3D prints and you
need to split them or cut them into
pieces and then later on connect them
together because it's basically
something that will give you only holes
in the model and then it will give you
an extra basically like a plug that you
can then plug into the model. Now, why
this is so amazing is because like it
it's super easy to insert there. So, you
probably won't even need glue. Of
course, if you want to make it
permanent, glue is always good, but then
you can snap it into the other part. But
what I really love about this type of
connection is that you can actually
print both of the pieces now laying
down, right? So the print orientation is
a lot better because the since it's only
a hole. If this was let's say printed
already like this, you couldn't print it
this this way down because there would
be the plug. So by just giving you it
completely extra, they allow you to
print it like this and then just put it
together. But it even allows you to
print round surfaces just like this
standing up because it doesn't create
the the if if the plug was in there, it
would create an overhang right over
here, right? So it would print very
badly and then it just wouldn't connect
to the second part, right? But that
isn't a problem because they removed it.
It can actually print the layers just
like this instead of going like this,
which would make the surface look
extremely ugly. So to do this inside of
the slicer, add your model in there, you
can actually click it and again go into
the same exact tool which is called the
cut tool. Once you click on the cut tool
right now, we will be doing it a bit
differently. We will need to select the
mode to be planer because we will be
basically just cutting it like a plane.
Position it. So let's say we want it
this way. And now you will need to click
on add connectors which is right over
here. But the one that we will be using
right now is something called dowel.
double. As you can see, it allows you to
select the shape of the dowel, which you
can set for triangle, square, hexagon,
or circle. As you can see right over
here, in my example, I chose something
that is actually hexagonal. If I was to
select the hexagon and then go onto the
part and I would try to add it, what you
can see is that it would basically add
this surface down here and then this
surface on the top. But that is wrong
because if it would print it that way,
this whole wall on the top of the of the
hexagon would be an overhang which we do
not want. We want to avoid overhangs as
much as we can. Right? You can actually
rotate it 90°. And as you can see, the
hexagon has actually the sharp edges on
the bottom and on the top, which means
that there won't be any big overhang.
Now again, you need to click on confirm
connectors and then perform cut. Once
you do that and just start splitting it
together and as you can see it divi
divided it perfectly and it even left
out the plug that we needed to have or
the dowel as the next kind of connector.
Connector 4: The Plug
This is something called the plug which
is one of the simplest one and basically
all that it is is the shape that you
have on the other side put onto the
other. So once I switch back into the
slicer and when you look into the sliced
file of this as you can see this is the
problem of the plugs because those two
because they are actually angled they
don't have any overhangs but when you
look on the circle that isn't just
angled enough it has a big overhang
right over here which of course was a
problem for the printer to print at all
and it because of that it had bad print
quality. So once you have your model in
there you will again go into the cut
tool. Once you click on the cut tool
again, select the mode as planer and add
connectors. Now you will be going into
the plug section. Once you click that
over here in the style section, you can
either select prism where prism means
that the plug will be actually
completely straight. But the frostm
means that it will be angled. So it's
better for overhangs because it will
give you a bit of angle to the 3D print
so that it can print the overhang quite
nicely. And then you again just set the
sizes. Now the last one that I have
right over here prepared for you is
Connector 5: The Snap Fit
something that I still think the slicers
doesn't have figured out that well which
is basically like a snap fit. But as we
all know in designing snap fits are
quite hard to create even when you are
modeling it yourself because it's just
so hard to get it mechanically correct.
As you can see I needed to print this
with support as well as this snap fit on
the bottom. So let me remove it. Once we
take the the second part let's try to
connect it actually together. So once we
I need to have it oriented correctly.
And if I try to connect it together, as
you can see, it snaps in together
perfectly. So it actually works quite
fine. But the supports make it a lot
harder to do. So let me show you how to
do it inside of the slicer. So once you
are in your slicer and you have your
model prepared, you can just again click
on it, go into the cut. We have already
went over that. Select again the planer.
Nothing changes there. Then just select
add connectors. And over here we will be
going into the snap. You can actually
place the plug. And now what you can
just start doing is start editing these
settings. And as you can see the snap
fit will be actually changing in real
time. So you can actually edit it
straight over here. Adjust it to your
needs. The space basically is how much
will the snap be allowed to move. And
the bulge means how much it will be
expanded compared to the hole that you
are making. How much it will need to
bend. And then once you perform the cut,
as you can see right over here, you have
the snap fit. You have both of these
parts modeled straight in there. You
didn't need to use any of the designing
softwares. So hopefully this short guide
Outro & Next Steps
helped. And if I forgot anything or you
have something extra to share that I
perhaps forgot to mention here, you can
definitely comment it down below.
