How to Make Personalized Paperclips / Bookmarks Using Tinkercad Codeblocks

by Makertronics in Workshop > 3D Printing

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How to Make Personalized Paperclips / Bookmarks Using Tinkercad Codeblocks

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Sorting a stack of papers is difficult and even if you do so, sometimes you later forget for what purpose you made that particular pile. To resolve this, in this Instructables we are going to make some personalized/customizable paperclips which will help you sort your notes, files and it can also be used as an bookmark.
We will be utilizing the Tinkercad new feature of Codeblocks, with a few drag & drop of of blocks we will have a model of paperclip which can be easily customized whenever needed, just download, print and use it.

I will be showing you three kind of designs :

  • A Sleeve for traditional paperclip
  • A Short less protruding paperclip
  • A long paperclip

If you want you can follow along with this tutorial on Tinkercad using the following links:

Supplies

3D Printer

Codeblocks - Sleeve for Paperclip

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To get your personalized version of the sleeve you just need to go to 3rd last block and write the text you want in place of "Tinkercad". If your text is bigger than "Tinkercad" then change the length factor accordingly and click the refresh button then play button at the top to page to see the changes.

To make the design for the sleeve we have utilized a cylindrical object and cuboidal box at the end of it, both with height equals to variable height and width equals to variable width and both depends upon the parameter size as entered by you.
Then we subtract the cavity made up of a cylindrical object of radius 4mm and rectangle of width 8mm and length 7mm both of them are moved to the end of the sleeve and a group is created.
Then we add the text and move it to the center of the design.

Sleeve for Paper Clip

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If you want to directly print it and use it just go to the link provided above and copy the design into your own Tinkercad account and follow the Step 5 to download and print.

The design have a cavity for the 8mm wide paperClip to slide into it. Due to the cavity any 3D printing Slicer like Cura or Simplify3D will try to put supports inside it so make sure to uncheck the supports from the setting as it would be difficult to remove the supports from that cavity and depending upon the bridging capabilities of your 3D printer the file can by printed without the need of support. After printing it you might need to clean the cavity to get rid the stringiness of due to bridging, you can use any pointed object like tweezers to clean and widen the cavity so the paper clip can slide in with a little force and it will held there with friction.

Codeblocks - Fully 3D Printed Personalized Paperclips

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To get your personalized version of the Paperclips you just need to go to 3rd last block and write the text you want in place of "Tinkercad". If your text is bigger than "Tinkercad" then change the length factor accordingly and click the refresh button then play button at the top to page to see the changes. The overall size of the model is defined by the variable size.

To make the design for the Paperclip we have utilized a cylindrical object and half tube for other end which are joined by cuboidal bodies of length determined by the length factor as entered by you. For the elongated version the text is at the back stub for which the length factor is applicable and the stiffness is going to determine the height of the paperclip. So you can tweak and play with these parameters to get the desired model.

Fully 3D Printed Personalized Paperclips

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If you want to directly print it and use it just go to the link provided above and copy the design into your own Tinkercad account and follow the Step 5 to download and print.

While creating GCode for 3D Printing if the text doesn't appear to be printed on the file then try to increase the size of the file by using the scale feature of the slicer. In Cura it can be found in the left side menu at 2nd position from top.

Download the STL Files

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After tweaking with the parameters, don't forget to refresh the model.
Now we need to download the .STL files for 3D printing and to do so click on the export button on the top left corner of the Tinkercad webpage which will open a dialog box have option to download the files in different file formats like .OBJ, .STL, Part etc.

.STL is best for 3D printing so click on it to download the the file.

3D Print the Clips

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As you have the file now open any 3D Slicing software such as Ultimaker Cura or Simplify3D and add the file you want to print.
For print settings you must use at least 3 units of wall parameter to have strength in the holding flange of paperclip and 2-3 layers in Top/Bottom Layers.

Color It (optional)

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Now you have the 3D Prints you can also color them using your favourite colors to have a good contrast between them or if you own a dual extruder 3D printer them you can print the model and Text in different colors.

Now Use Them Anywhere You Want

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Woohoo... now you have a personalized Paperclip/ Bookmark.

If you have made it for your self, I would love to see that so, do share pic of yours below.