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Hinge generator: print-in-place hinges for 3D printing

Make a hinge for a box, a lid, a door or a case, in the size you need. Most kinds print already joined and turn right off the bed - no assembly, no supports. Pick the kind, set the size, the play and the screw holes, and export it in two colours.

Watch the tutorial

Every option in under two and a half minutes, with subtitles: all eight kinds, size and knuckles, what holds it together, the play, leaves and screw holes, the folded view and several on one plate. Watch on YouTube ↗

1Open the Hinge generator

Open the app, start a new project and click Hinge under Generators on the left (or use the button above). A butt hinge appears on the bed and its settings open on the right. Every change shows at once in the view; the line at the top of the panel tells you how far the hinge swings and whether the two leaves touch.

2The eight kinds of hinge

• Butt - the classic: two leaves side by side, joined by knuckles. Prints in place.
• Piano - long, with many small knuckles and narrow leaves: lids, doors, folding boards. Prints in place.
• Surface - both leaves lie flat with the knuckles on top, to screw onto the outside of a box and its lid. Prints in place.
• Strap / T - a short leaf and a long tapered strap, the gate and shed door look. Prints in place.
• Take-apart - the knuckles have a hole for a pin you push in: 1.75 mm filament, a nail, a screw - or a printed pin.
• Lift-off - a pin on one part, a sleeve on the other: lift the door off. Both print standing, knuckle down, without supports. Choose which side the pin leaf goes.
• Snap-on - printed apart, then clipped together: a C-shaped knuckle snaps over a rod. Clip opening sets how tight it snaps.
• Living - one piece with a thin bending strip between the leaves; set its thickness and width. Print it in PP, PETG or TPU.

Switching the kind starts it with settings that suit it; everything below can still be changed.

3Size and knuckles

In the Size card type the Length (along the knuckles), the width of Leaf A and Leaf B (from the middle of the knuckles to the outer edge) and the Thickness of the leaves. A strap hinge also has the width of the strap's end.

In the Knuckles card you can type the knuckles' Ø and their Count. Leave them empty and the generator picks them from the length and the thickness - the automatic values show in the empty fields.

4What holds it together

The hinges that print in place (butt, piano, surface, strap) are held together in one of three ways:

• Cones - cones on one leaf's knuckles sit in cone-shaped sockets in the other's. They print without supports. Cone angle: steeper prints more cleanly, flatter holds deeper.
• Printed pin - a pin printed in place through all the knuckles. Stronger for long hinges.
• Pin hole - a hole through all the knuckles for a pin you add, so the halves come apart. Pick the pin: 1.75 mm filament, a 2 mm nail, M3 or M4 - or type your size and the room round it. Print a pin too adds a pin with a head, lying flat.

5The play

The play is the gap all round the moving parts. Normal (0.35 mm) works on most printers; Tight (0.25 mm) wobbles less on a well tuned printer; Loose (0.5 mm) is for a printer whose hinges come out stuck. Exact play takes any value from 0.1 to 1 mm.

6Leaves and screw holes

The Leaves card gives the outer corners: Rounded (with a corner radius), Half round or Chamfered.

Tick Screw holes to add them. Pick the screw - M2 to M5, wood screws 3 or 4 mm, or your own hole and head size - and the head: Countersunk, Counterbore or Plain. The layout is Auto (two rows when the leaf is wide enough), Line, Grid or Zigzag, with how many along and across. A hole whose head would reach past a rounded edge moves in until it fits.

7See it folded

In Layout & colours, Folded turns leaf B about the knuckles so you can check the motion; drag the Turned slider from 0 to 180°. The panel's info line says how far it can swing before the leaves meet - 180° means it folds flat. Lift-off and snap-on hinges show Put together instead. Switch back to As printed before you export.

8Several hinges, colours and export

How many puts up to 8 hinges side by side on one plate. Each leaf has its own colour (and the pin, when one is printed). Click Create hinge, then export it: STL for one colour, or Multi-colour 3MF to print the two leaves in their colours. To change it later, double-click it.

9Tips for printing

• Print in-place hinges flat, as they come out of the generator - no supports.
• If a hinge is stuck, bend it firmly once; it loosens the knuckles. If it still does not turn, print it again with Loose play.
• A squashed first layer (elephant's foot) can fuse the knuckles to each other: level the bed and don't print the first layer too close to it.
• For a living hinge use PP, PETG or TPU and print the strip lying flat.

Questions

Also see: Box generator (boxes with hinged lids), Bolt generator, Flexi generator and Tray generator.