Designing Buckles, Clips and Snaps for 3D Printing - Detailed Guide 

You should set a parameter and call it "Clearance" and set all your clearance dimensions to that variable. That way if want to go back and change the clearance, you just have to do it once in the edit parameters box.

Wonderful content, Angus! One of my goals is to design buckles that are easier for those with weak hands to use. And you’ve really helped me get good start! Thank you!

I found your video exactly 2 years after you posted it and exactly at the right time because I have designed a wristband and now need to have some kind of locking mechanism. Your insights about the belt buckle are very helpful to me and will probably save me some time of try and error. Thanks for sharing and I love your videos !

This is by far the best 3d printing channel I subscribed to. I love your videos and the overall vibe, the knowledge that I gain and the manner in which it's being put out. Thank you! You're the best! Vlad, RO

Very nice. I really enjoyed the walk through the design methodology and iterations. I'm looking forward to you doing a multi-part print that just snaps together now!

Nicely done and quite beautiful, too. I love making things that snap together especially when I can eliminate hardware fasteners. Noticed that your model was v24. Makes me feel a lot better that my own designs require so many revisions. Now back to v17 of my current design.

11:00 first, the center rod should be at least as long as your outside prongs, but really it should be just slightly longer. it helps significantly right at the very beginning of insertion. that's the most critical moment, and i know from experience that it can make a huge difference for ease of use. 26:50 you can see here how he has to manually center it every time. if you're focused on the buckle and have a good hold on each side that's fine. but it's not ideal. if the center rod was longer, you could easily connect the two sides with hardly any consideration. on my backpack i can connect the two side with just one hand and without looking at it at all. great for when i forget to connect it, but i'm already on my bike and moving. i don't want to have to pull over to be precise enough with two hands to buckle it. second, it also helps with elastic fatigue because it forces the two bendy sides to bend at the same rate, instead of allowing one prong to bend more than the other and causing more wear and fatigue over time on that side. but third, and far more important, the main purpose is fulfilled after full insertion to keep the whole buckle centered. otherwise, lateral forces could easily pull the internal half to one side or the other, which could allow one of the prongs to disengage and the connection to fail.

I think being able to be very clear when communicating, as you do, is a rare skill

Great video. Many people in 3d printing have no background in CAD so I'm sure this will be useful to many.

You could have a master class just designing clasps, catches and other fastening implements. Well done!

hey dude ! I'm following you since the beginning. and I can say that's exactly why we are following ... please go on with this kind of video ;) greetings from France as usual. sry 4 my bad english btw i'd love to see you in a maker fair in our country !

Wow you really made the Video! I asked for it a few months ago, thank you very much for creating all the videos! :)

Just love your practical and functional videos. Thanks.

Honestly I don't even own a 3d printer I'm just here for the snaps

Can't beat having a pair of calipers laying around. I've noticed anything printed vertically has more chance to break due to layering. Great video.

One of the main functions of the center post of that design is that if only one of the prongs is depressed it will isolate that motion from the other prong and prevent the whole half of the buckel from rotating preventing the other prong from disengaging. Now if that wasn't a run on sentence, I don't know what is.

The snap felt so good, it wiped out half of the universe.

There are so many objects and mechanisms around us that we take for granted and never really look closely at to see how they work (like buckles). I enjoyed seeing that, it gave me some inspiration for future designs.

RU-vid has suggested this under every video I have watched for the past day. I agree youtube, I need more Maker's Muse content in my life 😁

Ohhhh thank You VERY VERY much! I was waiting this video too much! As always good job!

Pro Tip: Prusa Slicer has a great function called "Elephant Foot Compensation" in the Advanced Tab - Its doing the same thing as you did with your trick - it basicly can make the first layer a bit smaller, so all layers are even and fit together just fine :)

I’ve always been amazed at the tolerances that are designed for snaps especially when there’s rubber or something that’s squishing, yet everything perfectly lines up.

I love the chamfer for the bottom layer idea so simple but solves a lot of issues I was having 👍

This was actually super helpful at demystifying the process. Thanks a ton!

Thank you for putting together a very interesting video especially the Fusion 360 step through. Cheers 👍😎🇦🇺

Thanks Angus. I have a metalic arm with a go pro mount attached witch I usually use for a phone holder. I had made a small clamp that attaches too it for general utility with two smooth bumped pads were they meat. The original Pads were PLA witch I planned on eventually replacing with a more flexible material so this buckling mechanism was perfect for making them easy to remove and replace

This is great. Looking forward to more material like this. Thanks!

Thank you for great ideas and the tutorial, Angus!

I was literally planning a project that was going to need something like this. thank you so much XD

Very cool! Something to consider for the future: the (bending) stiffness of the bending member is proportional to the cube of the thickness of the beam (your 2.2mm dimension), but the pull-out (axial) strength is proportional to the thickness itself (first power). So, if you need to decrease the snap force without decreasing the pull-out strength, you can split your snap beams into multiples, attached at the moving end. For example, replace your 2.2mm-thick beam with a pair of 1.1mm beams. The pulll-out strength will be similar, but the snap stiffness will be lower.

Great video, and on content that is not just “me too” (although some of that is fine too). This plays to your strengths, and I’m not just talking about the clips. :)

Good video on the design process! Would love to see more like this. Have my like sir!

Great video. I liked the walk through in Fusion 360 a lot !! :-)

This video arrives just as I was thinking of designing my own bicycle bag under the seat. I love you.

Wow, impressive and simple design Thanks for sharing😀👍

Just failed horribly at this and your video is perfectly timed! Back to the sketch book! Thanks Angus! 👊🏻🤘❤

One thing to consider if you're making larger snaps or other flexible objects is infill pattern. If you aren't getting most of your infill from wall thickness, then using a concentric or spiral infill can give you good flexibility in the desired plane while preserving rigidity in other planes. I did that with some shock absorbing drone landing struts once, worked really well. Though you have to make sure your vertical axis is normal to the flex plane, the way the example snap was here, otherwise they'll come out brittle.

Angus, nice video. This had me thinking of 3D printing some traditional woodworking style connections. Things like dovetail joints, and some of the more complicated Asian style techniques. Aside from the tolerances, these should be easy to print. Thanks

That was really educational. Thanks Angus !

You are genius! Thanks! Sincerely - A R&D Engineer who was in need of this exact information :-D

Badly needed, thank you so much!

That was a great video. I was hoping you’d do the clip shut container. 😎🍀👊🏻 Keep up the top work!

15:23 I used to do separate drawings for each piece, add parameters, etc. Nowadays I (mostly) do the same sketch, extrude, project, sketch method. Since I don't do this for a living, no one else works on my projects, and I've rarely found the need to go back and revise parts much (outside of the initial design/test/finish phase), so it works for me, and I've found that I get things "right on the first try" a lot more often now. I still save things off as components so I can easily bring into them in larger assemblies.

Forgot to add I'm fairly new to 3d printing loving your channel

I remember I went through a few designs for attaching the lid onto a lithophane lightbox I was building before deciding on a relatively simple snap-design.

Remember the drop shaped holes you showed us? Same works for internal top surface of the buckle. Just make an angle there from both sides and you don't need to bridge the whole thing.

Thanks dude this really gave me a better idea I usually just look at something and try to reverse engineer it but this made it easier to design now I print and cross my fingers it works lol.

This video comes at a convenient time! Thanks!

Very nice. thanks. I made seperable keychains based on these ideas and recommendations. Did not know where to start.

LOL! For me, you were like 2 days late with this video. Had to design myself a custom battery box with room for a CR2032 coin battery and a small switch. Had something close to what I wanted from some fairy lights I bought, but I needed to adjust it for my specific use. Whipped out my 15cm/150mm ruler, measured things up, and now have myself a project specific battery box. Great video! You are so right about things looking enormous in cad that are barely visible in reality lol

I love this video. More Fusion designs!

Part 2 for this video should be done by CNCkitchen for elasticity test and parts design. Should be interesting.

The first snap example: The curve in the latch is significant. If the curve is flattened out, it lengthens the latch slightly enabling it to engage more easily, and pushing the latch closed does flatten it out somewhat. Very good design.

I’ve been waiting for you to do something like this, Angus! I hope you cover ball joints one day!

Great instructional video. Thanks for sharing. : )

Thank you for introducing me to Prusa Slic3r. I have an Ender 3 (and all the problems with it) and it's so much easier to go in and change/customize/troubleshoot parameters than it is in Cura.

Interesting timing as about a month or so ago I used similar techniques to build a bracket to hold on a heap ( about 80 ) of LED message badges for a costume project. Not sure if Angus will mention it ( in commenting before the video has ended ) but print orientation is important

really informative, thanks Angus.

Very nice. I will use that in some of my projects. Thanks from Germany :-)

The center buckle guide is essential. When the bending parts are bent, the fact that they are plastic makes them susceptible to achieving their yield point quickly and then having a negative spring rate. In other words, instead of getting harder to deflect the farther they are bent, they would actually lose strength and bend more easily. Without the center guide rail, all of the bending would be accepted by one of the barbs while the other remained straight. Also, the design may benefit from the center guide being longer.

Great video fella!

Great video. As others also have stated, there are multiple ways to do things in Fusion. And the way you do it is the best - for you - just because you know how to do it :-) @3:05 that plastic box for the gel pens has some more (hidden) features. The hinge on top is obvious but there is a second set of snaps and hinge on the back. If you unsnap those, you can bend the back and put the lid back on. Now you have a very nice stand for the pens. That is a nice product design feature that might deserve its own video of making your own marker box ;-)

That was so cool :]

Nice! More technical and practical videos please.

brilliant video angus

Excellent video~

thnaks angus, great video!

Great advises, exactly my experience :) sketch fillets are terrible, dimensions are gone and sometimes areas are not closed properly. Sketching everything at once is probably the biggest mistake I made over time... Working with projections is probably the way to go, but it is strange sometimes when geometries change or replaced. I think splitting into components is an easy step and improves modeling with a little by a cleaner timeline. But with that as well it is easy to make mistake and keep sketching in the wrong component making a mess too.

so useful, thankyou!

nice mate i'm sure it will come in handy one day

Hahah "None of these should be used for life dependant applications, OMG please" Really good video man!

You should make a design competition and test the strength of each submissions. I personally print the outer receptacle flat with a 2nd hole for ribbon friction lock. Then I use the center tooth to prevent over pressing the tabs.

Angus brilliant work as always, time to design some keyed lockable buckles ;)

That t-shirt makes me happy!

Can we expect more vids like these now ON!

Thanks dude! You’re like the Harry Potter of 3D Printing. I learn something new from every video. Really appreciate it man.

please make an iterative design video ! I use shapr3D for my 3D (on Ipad only) models and it rocks for my students....! that is so simple to do precise models with this tool. It definitively deserve a tutorial video from you :) you had a lot of partnership with hardware suppliers ....time to go on the software side !

The easy release is a safety design - a name tag hanging around your neck will easily breakaway if caught, rather than pulling you in. Nice video!

Great video Angus, I've quite enjoyed it. Please forget reviewing cheap Chinese printers and teach us basic principles of industrial design. This kind of content is badly needed. Thanks!

You’ve got thin posts relying on layer adhesion carrying the maximum load by printing the female part vertically. Print that horizontally and have the shaft and posts up there thicker. Can add some chamfers to thin these areas for aesthetics a bit. Always trade offs it seems.

A very useful walk-through Angus! Thanks!

This is awesome - now I can print buckles for rock-climbing harnesses :-)

Another take on snaps are the two part style. One part easily deforms in and out and another part is inserted and keeps the prongs apart so they cannot flex anymore. (like automotive clips with 4prong circular plug that is spred apart by a central pin or a screw after it was inserted in the appropriate hole) On this style of snaps it can have a constraint with a compliance mechanism: have the prongs connect to the central pin with a V piece that is very thin at the connection points. The V will be bent more (with less angle in the V) as it snaps into place. But then you can push the center of the V past horizontal making it an A shape where the tip would rest on the top of the inside buckle. This prevents the A shape to ever get more angle, preventing the prongs to be bent inward again. Surely the compliant part is tricky as you need a shallow enough V that can be bent into A with some ease. The amplitude of the resting V must be greater than the locked in A, and the prongs must be able to deform outward a bit more in order to spread outward the prongs so the A is formed out of the V. (to prevent slop, maybe the cutout ledge in the buckle has a leaf spring that can bend outward a bit.

Thanks Angus!

I really would like to know more about < projected geometry > I learn the trick about having a ruler to check the real size of thing since I use a 40 inch ( 1 meter ) screen to desing thank for another good video !

I can only work in CAD on a student level and designing a snap action lid for one of my projects seemed daunting. This was the first video that popped up. Didn't need to look any further.

Wow this could help make my rocket parts lighter instead of always using screws! Thanks Angus!

I noticed that when you showed the barbs in a deflected state, it appeared that the deflection was not distributed evenly along the leg of the barb but seemed to be concentrated near the root of the barb. I think it's clear that distributing the bend along the length of the barb leg would make it more robust. Possibly, a very slight taper could be added to the barb's leg.

Excellent video - makes me want to try Fusion - Made my first design but cannot export to STL file that can be pulled into Cura for slicing

Not sure if someone already pointed it out but by printing the grey part vertically will still introduce layer adhesion issues, specially at the top bridge pillars.

There's no right or wrong way as long as you get the job done... I am with you in regards to fillets I nearly always add them as a separate item, (I find its better for configurations) I use solidworks, not sure how folders work in fusion but I tidy up my fillets with folders later..

Great and interesting video Angus! You should cover hinges as a follow-up. I detest "living hinges". I understand why they exist I just don't like it. Its a guaranteed failure point that will ultimately render useless something that otherwise might still have a useful life in or out of its intended function.

You're learnt Design steps well. Those 2 holes can be used for an added lock that goes in, blocking normal unlock, for folks that lace their shoes twice-laced... Like me! LOL

I'm really late, but those latching pieces that disconnect at certain forces are used on some lanyard mounts so that people can't be choked by the rope around their neck ^^

Why do several people use the 0 before the point? Eg: zero point 3 (0.3) vs point 3 (.3) waste of energy and time... Zero is understood when .x is used. This use of zero point is a really old convention about 1970ish and previous convention. I learned a more recent convention that is now about 50 years old. But I love your videos non the less. The world is changing and conventions are too changing. It always simplifies in time.

It would be interesting to see if it possible to design something similar that will disengage at a specific weight/ force, in order to weigh objects. I was looking for something to tell if chicken have reached a certain weight, but I'm not sure if it would be more practical than weighing them.

Nice lights

Watching this video almost 2 years after you made it, and I noticed you did not see another design element in the pen box. It is cheaply made because the pens are single use. So it gets thrown away, BUT! The box, once opened folds back and the clips clip back onto the back, forming a support for your pens, making a stand for ease of pen removing and replacing. So it is disposable, yet highly functional during its lifetime. A brilliant use of the clips to turn the box into a stand by using the clips.

Hey Angus, in your video on how you designed the Combat fidget spinner you mention you should avoid mirroring sketches but rather mirror the body after you extrude. But here for the buckle you mirror the sketch for the prong side. I see this was 2 years ago however so wondering if you would have done this differently today, or there was a reason you mirrored the sketch? Thanks!

What! not strong enough. I made these, am climbing right now, and decided to finish watching the vid ahhh!!!!!!!