Carpet Transition Strip Adapter

thingiverse

This is my first custom make posted to thingiverse. As you can see from the pictures, I designed this because my carpet was far thicker than my vinyl floor that we put down in another room. So the transition reducer strip wouldn't even reach the metal track it was supposed to snap into. What's the solution? Design and print my own adapter. This was for a Zamma Restored Wood 1/3 in. thick x 1-13/16 in. wide x 72 in. length vinyl multi-purpose reducer molding purchased from Home Depot to go with the Lifeproof Vinyl Floor. The model is currently in a position like a U - but you will need to rotate it for printing to print it on its end and sticking straight up. This is for two reasons. One, so you don't need supports for that overhang. And two (more importantly) for strength. The first time I printed this in the U shape (one of the development designs that didn't have an overhang), the sides broke off very easily because they ran in the same direction as the print lines. If you print it on its end, the print lines follow the curves and the result is much stronger and will flex enough without breaking. The downfall is that there are grooves on both outer sides to be gripped by the metal strip, and those groves are not as detailed when printing upright. But they still worked. The model is only 20mm long. I suggest printing one piece at this standard size and testing it out on your carpet transition. If it's too tall, you can shrink it in your slicer on that axis and do another test print. Once you're sure it's going to fit, snap in and hold, I suggest stretching the z-axis (since you should be printing it on end) to make it as long as possible, and print several. As you can hopefully see from my pics, I printed four of them but only stretched it to 50mm each. This is fine for holding the strip down, but if you step on the areas without the adapter under it, you can feel it flex towards the floor. I think it would be better if you covered the entire strip with this adapter. I'm even thinking about pulling mine up and printing a few more to fill in the gaps. For material, I just used PLA. I would say you should print it solid but it's so thin that your wall thickness settings will likely end up with it solid anyway. If even one person finds this useful than it was worth me posting it haha!