hexagonal nut cap

thingiverse

Just another nut cap. I made it hexagonal all the way up on the outside as a tribute to form follows function and because I wanted to make it easier to print upside down. Personally, I have always thought the traditional metallic nut caps with the nut shape at the base and the rounded cap at the top are rather weird looking. A strange design someone probably came up with in the 19th. century and which hasn't change ever since. A design like a mechanical Wolpertinger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolpertinger). But now there is 3d printing, so I can design my own nut cap.. As you can see in the photos, our garden bench is now assembled with 17mm wheel nuts. Should someone care to ask why, that will give me the perfect excuse to start a min. three hour explanation of the reprap movement.. Instructions The scad file is supplied and it is fully parametric. You can adjust wrench sizes outside and inside, heights, number of objects on the stls etc. The prepared stls are for a flat M6 nut inside with 10mm wrench size and 17mm wrench size outside (because that was what I needed for my garden bench). The stls printed well and quickly with 20% infill. I fixed the caps to the nuts with a bit of adhesive.