Contour Duplicator

thingiverse

This is my model of a tool that can duplicate the contour of various objects. This item consists of 3 main components (body, center support, and pegs). You need to print 2 of the body pieces (top and bottom), one center, and optionally spacers. You'll also need 4 small M3 screws along with 4 M3 nuts. I highly recommend cutting small strips of felt to place between the top and bottom pieces and the pins. Cut small pieces to use a spacers as well, and you will be able to "fine tune" the tension on the pins so that they slide smoothly, yet retain their position. I find that using felt greatly improves the usability by allowing the pegs to move smoothly, yet still retain their position. This design allows you to duplicate the contour of objects up to 180 mm long/wide, with a depth of slightly over 27 mm. Since you have the STL, you can resize this to your liking. My pins are 2 mm thick, which gives reasonable resolution to allow you to duplicate most contours easily. Again, you can change this very easily, although from experience I can tell you that thinner pegs may be too flexible. If there is too much friction to allow smooth movement of the pegs, you can optionally print the small spacer blocks (I used TPU to allow varying tension). 10-3-2019: Added longer peg option that will help keep pegs from interfering with each other due to edges catching. 4-20-2020: Added 80 and 90 mm pegs to further reduce interference from adjacent peg edges.