Clearance tolerance test for 3D printing

Tool to test your 3D printer clearance ranging from 0.02 to 0.24mm in both XY and Z direction.

The numbers on the parts indicates hundredths of milimeters while the arrows indicates corresponding value. It was created to help with designing new parts, fine tuning the printer and finding out the right values for printing bearings. Both the levers and pegs stays in the model and do not fall out.

The tool consists of two sets of parts:

ROUND PARTS WITH LEVERS tests are dependent on extruder flow, filament characteristics (width), on the way your slicer works with model perimeters and on the inner/outer perimeter printing order.

After the print just try to move the levers. The biggest one (0.24) should move freely right after you remove the print and the smallest one (0.02mm) would be fused. The smallest number you can set in motion indicates the maximum clearence your setting allows. Some of them will need some force (you will hear loud snap) and then they will get unstuck while moving tightly.

SQUARE PEGS in the middle are meant to test corners and swelling around them which are dependent on printer speed, linear advance, your toolhead innertia and layer height and width.

Push the pegs downards starting from the biggest one (the arrow indicates corresponding lever clearence) and find which one moves up and down freely. This tends to lead to poorer results than printing round parts as it moves across the layers and corners are always problematic on FDM printers.

If you want to dig deeper into those phenomenn I recommend Lost in Tech video or the Slic3r manual.

IMPORTANT
By default slicers merge gaps smaller than certain value (usually 0.05mm) to compensate for faulty or errorneous models. You need to tweak this setting if you want to test the smaller limits.

• no supports needed
• elephant foot effect should be compensated by the design but it depends on your initial Z height, after geting the parts unstuck it shouldn't play a role
• I do not recommend using brim as it will probably fuse the bottom together but if you encounter bed adhesion issue go for it