Has anyone found a good STL anywhere for a LED housing? I would be nice to print them directly into my panel’s without the need for hot glue!
Are you printing the panels too, or is this for a metal panel? If the former, just make a 3 mm or 5 mm hole, optionally with some padding on the back so it doesn’t stick out too far (see e.g. the LED panel here):
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You mean something like these for use on metal panels?
or do you mean to model into a 3D printed panel?
On my 3D printed panels I just make a 3mm or 5mm hole and then extrude a 1mm thick wall to the inside to support the LED. Though…just making a hole also works since the panel itself is usually thick enough.
So I assume you mean for metal/wood panels where the LED isn’t mounted to a PCB. It wouldn’t be hard to model something like those clips…but I’m not sure how well they’d print on a standard FDM printer due to their small size. Even on MSLA I’m not sure there would be enough material to print well.
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These exactly. I would think PLA would be just adequate enough for the task, but I suppose we are talking sub 3mm tolerances here.
If I could find a good .stl, it would be a pretty simple task to include them in my faceplate prints.
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If you’re not sure how your printer handles small holes, print a small test piece with 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 etc holes (or print something like Metric Hole Test Pattern by CodeCreations - Thingiverse). Otherwise you can just print a panel with, say, 3.1 mm holes (or 3.2 if your printer is known to be a bit sloppy) and use a drillbit to expand them if they turn out to be too tight.
Yeah, the problem is the thin section on most of those I’ve had over the years is barely the thickness of a single extrusion width - so they’re not going to be very strong at all…They may be doable with a smaller nozzle instead of a standard 0.4mm.
I just checked…and the ones in the photo require a 1/4" hole for 5mm LED’s. So that’s 1.35mm thick max…probably more like 1 mm wall thickness since they likely leave a bit of wiggle room. So assuming 1mm thick you may be able to pull that off with 2 extrusion widths…but it will be tricky. Some slicers don’t like dealing with that kind of thin wall.
It’s also tricky to print since there are overhangs either way you print it…but…
Here’s a link to the Fusion360 project: https://a360.co/3tlwGqz
And here’s a link to a STL version: led_clip.stl - Google Drive
This is is sized for a 5mm LED in a 1/4" hole in a 1.5mm thick panel. It may be a bit short…but I wasn’t sure just how far to let the LED stick out.
I tried printing it…but…there just isn’t enough surface on the print bed to stick well. So it failed. You may be able to get it to work with some bed treatments…but…it will be tricky.
For what I did understand, he will not print them “alone”, but integral to the panel, in one piece.
I would go for another design in this case.
Just a cylinder barely larger (inner diameter) than the LED, height adjusted for how much you want the LED to stick out, with a few small dimples inside to grip the LED so it stays in place.
Even if these dimples print out ugly, they’ll grip the LED and that’s what they are for, they are not visible…
If they are a bit to big, reaming the hole with a drill bit slightly smaller than the LED will fix them.
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You got it @eric . I am going for more of a ‘print in place’ situation. Maybe I should get in touch with my inner industrial designer.
Ah, I thought you had said that wasn’t what you were going for.
In that case it’s really a matter of designing it as part of your panel not a separate STL. I just use a cylinder of the correct length (depending on how far you want the LED to stick out and how thick your panel is)
On my clock divider I just used some holes since the panel itself is already 3mm thick, the holes are 5.1mm which makes for a nice snug fit. no glue needed and the LED’s take a bit of force to press in :
If you want to get fancy you could add a bit of taper I suppose…but for me just a 5.1mm hole in a 3mm thick panel works perfect.
There are several benefits that I can see. First it would keep me from accidentally bumping a LED and knocking it back behind the panel. Second if I ever need to change either the panel or the led for some reason, having a clip in place makes sense for easier replacement. Also having it as a separate .stl allows me to easily duplicate it and plop it in place when I design a new face plate. The one you posted earlier is a good starting point at least.