Maintain Relative Spacing Between M3 Nuts in Misumi HFS3 Aluminum Extrusions
In the previous post I described how to keep individual M3 nuts in place on a Misumi HFS3 Aluminum Extrusion. After I started using those little 3D-printed holders to keep the nuts in place, I ran into a related but different problem.
Some large parts require more than one fastener to hold them to the extrusion. And some of these parts get moved around as I revise the details of my design. A specific large bracket required four nuts and, after pushing the M3 nuts around (all four every time I moved the bracket) I started thinking about how to improve this process.
The first answer was to scale my existing design upwards. Instead of a tiny object that holds a single M3 nut, create a longer strip that holds multiple nuts in place. In practice, the friction of a longer strip causes many problems. When pushed, the strip will want to bend instead of move, which increases the pressure on the sides of the rail, which made it even more resistant to moving. And when pulled, the strip is not strong enough to stand up to the strain and would break apart.
The second answer is to reduce the size so there's less frictional stress to bend or stretch and generally break the strip. But then the old problem came back: with less friction, the nuts would move around if the frame is jostled or tilted. It's nice that they all move together, maintain proper spacing, but that's not terribly useful.
The third answer is to combine elements from the previous two: the strip inside the rail is still loose and free to move, but I added a tab that sticks above the rail. This tab is large enough to provide friction against the rail edge. As the friction is at tab, friction would not cause the rest of the strip to bend or stretch. Since such a strip is customized for a particular part, the tab is also specialized to the mating part. When the tab is pushed up against the side of the mating part, all the nuts on the strip are at the appropriate places.
With the help of this strip, it is now much easier to move the brackets around to try out different ideas.
