How-to Design Print in Place Hinges | Design for Mass Production 3D Printing

Learn more about Teleport:
tinyurl.com/bd...
Print-in-place hinges can be tricky, but with the right design techniques, you can create strong, reliable, and fully functional hinges straight off the print bed-no supports needed! In this video, we break down the key principles of designing print-in-place hinges that actually work, from material selection to layer orientation and hinge geometry.
You'll learn:
✅ How to prevent weak, brittle, or fused hinges
✅ The best print orientations for strength and durability
✅ Common hinge design mistakes and how to avoid them
Whether you're designing for personal projects or selling 3D-printed products, mastering hinge design is essential for creating robust, professional-grade parts. Plus, if you're looking to sell your 3D prints without running a print farm, check out Teleport, our 3D print-on-demand service that lets you upload your models, and sell prints without the hassle of running a print farm.
#3dprinting #3dprinted #3dprintingideas #designfor3dprinting
🔗 OTHER IMPORTANT LINKS 🔗
Get a Quote for Your Mass Production Project: www.slant3d.com/
Get Our STL's: www.angled.xyz/
Get Affordable High-Quality Filament: www.tangledfil...
Try Shapr3D (Use Code: Slant3d): www.shapr3d.co...
Our Favorite Products: www.amazon.com...
About Slant 3D
🏭 High-Volume 3D Printing: Scalability Meets Flexibility
Slant 3D's Large-Scale 3D Print Farms utilize 1000's of FDM 3D printers working 24/7 to offer limitless scalability and unparalleled flexibility. Whether it's 100 or 100,000 parts, our system can handle it reliably, while still allowing for real-time design updates, ensuring products evolve with the times. This adaptability is key in today's fast-paced world.
🌿 Sustainable Manufacturing: Eco-Friendly Efficiency
Embrace a system that drastically reduces carbon emissions by eliminating carbon-intensive steps in the supply chain, such as global shipping and warehousing. Our approach minimizes this footprint, offering a more sustainable manufacturing option.
⚙️ Digital Warehouses: Parts On-Demand
Think of print farms as a "Digital Warehouse", meaning we can store your parts digitally on a server rather than physically on a shelf. parts are available on-demand, reducing the need for extensive physical inventory.
Produced by Geometry Media

[@rockbande98]

I'm in the process of designing something that needs hinges and I'm so glad this came out just in time!

[@klohto]

man, we gonna need 507 3d mechanisms book soon

[@slant3d]

Not a bad idea

[@klohto]

@@slant3d send me a pre-print copy *wink wink*

[@McRootbeer]

That might actually be a coffee table book that I'd pay 20 bucks for.😂 ​@@slant3d

[@twanlange2827]

@@slant3dseriously, I need this!

[@mikehogarty6439]

@slant3d should I upload my model to teleport in the orientation I want it printed, or will you guys adjust for best result? Also what have you been working on? I know mechanic hands when I see them 😂

[@pheonixq2525]

Thank you for going over hinges. I've been meaning to investigate different ones and figuring out how to design them, but haven't gotten to it yet. This saves me some time.

[@slant3d]

You're welcome

[@KevinHaeusler]

This video is unhinged.

[@taylorlomas]

No no it seems very hinged

[@That1GGuy]

Liar

[@imacmill]

That sort of criticism hinges on your biases.

[@danielbender4327]

Please provide samples of these, particularly the green and orange guys from 4:10 to 6:00. I don’t understand how you don’t have portions printing on long cantilevers or in air.

[@plazmaguy13yago9]

me too

[@JohnMadrayJr]

Thank you, I thought I was going crazy

[@jimbrookhyser]

I'm with you guys, but I have some of my own experience here. I did essentially the same thing shown at 5:55 with two important changes: 1. I printed it the other way around. Cones/chevrons started small at the bottom, and grew wider as they grew taller. 2. This sounds crazy, but stay with me: the two pieces of the hinge were actually connected as one solid body. The connection was a 2 mm diameter cylinder, vertically oriented connecting the concave bottom of one Chevron to the beginning tip of the next. It's a little crazy, but during use, the center just has to break. I thought this would be a cringe inducing application of force, but in fact, just taking the part of the print bed was enough to prime the hinge. The results were amazingly good. The hinge has very little play (it's literally zero tolerance) and the feel is buttery smooth. Until you try it, you won't get it. It's like the extra plastic in there acts like a lubricant or something. Gabe likes chunky hinges, but the one I printed was a relatively slender 10 mm diameter total, and WAY stronger than I imagined it would be. I put one of the prints in a vice to do a destructive test, and the body of the box failed before the hinge did. I only printed this about 6 times and I kept making the center connecting cylinder bigger until it worked at 2 mm. Next time I do it, I'll probably go bigger again. I designed it from scratch and didn't upload it anywhere, so I can't point you to an easy thing to play with.

[@TooTallToby]

Fantastic info - Thanks Gabe!!

[@mistaecco]

Excellent advice! I use the principles you teach about every time i design :)

[@slant3d]

Thank you so much

[@jimbrookhyser]

5:55 I did essentially the same thing shown on screen with two important differences: 1. I printed it the other way around. Cones/chevrons started small at the bottom, and grew wider as they grew taller. 2. This sounds crazy, but stay with me: the two pieces of the hinge were actually connected as one solid body. The connection was a 2 mm diameter cylinder, vertically oriented connecting the concave bottom of one Chevron to the beginning tip of the next. It's a little crazy, but during use, the center just has to break. I thought this would be a cringe inducing application of force, but in fact, just taking the part of the print bed was enough to prime the hinge. The results were amazingly good. The hinge has very little play (it's literally zero tolerance) and the feel is buttery smooth. Until you try it, you won't get it. It's like the extra plastic in there acts like a lubricant or something. Gabe likes chunky hinges, but the one I printed was a relatively slender 10 mm diameter total, and WAY stronger than I imagined it would be. I put one of the prints in a vice to do a destructive test, and the body of the box failed before the hinge did. I only printed this about 6 times and I kept making the center connecting cylinder bigger until it worked at 2 mm. Next time I do it, I'll probably go bigger again. I designed it from scratch and didn't upload it anywhere, so sorry I can't point to a link.

[@SamCaloiero]

Awesome video, love the flex hinge

[@oNovais]

Amazing, thank you for the info sharing

[@TooTallToby]

Thanks!

[@slant3d]

Thank you

[@johnrobinson3642]

Lots of great ideas here, thanks very much for sharing!

[@congoose100]

Love it! Have you done one of these for different snap designs?

[@marksminis]

It would've been nice to find some links to some sample hinge model STL files... A+ video tho

[@ricardohnn]

What if i made a pin to connect both parts?

[@Diabl0pl]

Exactly, a pin is the answer to most of these concerns.

[@zackwalker6397]

Great timing. I have been wanting to build something PIP!

[@Large_list]

Good methods

[@McRootbeer]

When will we get to see these hinges being weight tested on tangled testing?

[@TheBlazerader]

what CAD do you use?

[@tarnis3d]

Like these videos, any chance of one on parts that csn pop/snap together and come back apart? Trying to eliminate screws from a part.

[@slant3d]

Take a look at out old connections video

[@sciencesaves]

This is a good video

[@slant3d]

Thanks. Appreciate the watch

[@plazmaguy13yago9]

NOT

[@galgrunfeld9954]

Hey, do you guys offer modeling consultation? I've been trying to prototype a small pill case with an integrated hinge that I want to mass-produce later but I've been having trouble to print it while keeping dimensional accuracy and having the hinge print well and work (I'm new to 3D modeling and 3D printing so I'm sure that there's at least one thing I'm not doing well and/or don't know). Once figured out I'd love to mass 3D print it with you guys.

[@goldengrapeorg]

will you explain hinges of glasses frame? that is different.

[@cybernetix86]

Ton Fusion est en français, tu viens du Quebec??

[@Mdxmdx]

For the hinge at 2:12 which tolerances do you suggest, to avoid that the fuse together? Do you use support between the two parts? thanks

[@slant3d]

No support in any of them. always make the tolerances as large as you can for the application. Generally at least 0.25mm

[@Saixoz]

Wouldn't multimaterial printing/the sharpie pen adhesion breaking trick work wonders for the dual-cone hinge?

[@scott.adrian]

Hmmm. I've been considering using teleport for my Amazon store products for scale, but now I'm a bit worried about quality as I've been able to utilize ironing and specific support settings to get a high quality end product. I wonder if your print farm wouldn't accommodate those types of considerations now.

[@slant3d]

Always design your product to be independent of any slicer settings. A robust design can run on any machine, any material, with any settings

[@scott.adrian]

@slant3d yeah but what about a sleek yet functional design? Robust sounds clunky and unappealing.

[@TS_Mind_Swept]

I'm guessing the interior Nubs are meant to be offset a layer or something like support material is 🤔

[@eslmatt811]

What clearance do you recommend for teleport?

[@slant3d]

Depends on the design. Always make your parts robust. So the bigger the clearance the better

[@cronusradonsystems2036]

Why is your Fusion in French?

[@slant3d]

Multitalented

[@christianbureau6732]

Merci Gabe

[@ShaneBarr-c3w]

​@slant3d I thought that I heard an " aboot" in one of these videos...

[@CoalOres]

Wait, you can just print them in place like that? God I'm a 3D printing junior evidently, been using bolted axles this whole time. I wonder if there are any tricks for ball joints/universal joints too?

[@slant3d]

There are a few tricks to those. Hint: Cropping

[@HFR_SpartanFred]

Fusion est en français mais la vidéo est en anglais, bizarre... 🤔

[@emertonom]

"The way of doing that is basically taking this hinge, and then just making the second half of it, so that you have cone, and then back up, and then cone again. This way you are able to create something that doesn't really have the overhangs because everything blends into itself, and even though you have that center spiral, it can't break off because you have that baseline chamfered in really strong and reliable." ...what? It *really* looks and sounds like these designs have overhangs. I have no idea what you're describing that would eliminate these.

[@muggyate]

whenever i see a 3d printing video, i think arc-overhangs and alternating fractional delta z-axis movement between layers for better layer adhesion. but both of those are slicer and print setting specific.

[@mostlymessingabout]

🙋‍♂️

[@plazmaguy13yago9]

0:46 stop the unreasonable PLA hate

[@dtylerb]

I don't see why you consider it "PLA hate" to suggest you keep your material limitations in mind. PLA can work with that type of "hinge" you just need to make sure the bend isn't as tight as what's possible with some other materials. He even said that.

[@Vyvix123]

I love pla

[@plazmaguy13yago9]

​@@dtylerbPLA and petg will both do that of you fold them like he did but he chose to only hate on PLA because he is an elitiest fillamemt guru

[@deletedmediatj]

I love these videos they are suuuper informative!!! But we live in 2025... So obviously they're will be vomments on the hands.... Just watch....

[@olavodias]

I agree, i always learn a lot from this channel ... and I always see the haters looking for something to complain about lol

[@paul_devo]

Good video but wash your hands 🧼

[@Ryanonline1]

Came to say this. Glad I'm not the only one who noticed.

[@s0lci70]

These videos are great and super useful... I just want to say and I don't want to be mean but you could take time to take care of your hands if they're going to be shown so often in the videos. It's just a cosmetic tought and has no impact of the overall value of your content

[@svgPhoenix]

Wash your hands before doing close-up shots like that 😬

[@slant3d]

Some of us work for a living. They are called calluses and oil.

[@plazmaguy13yago9]

​@@slant3dwhy don't you soap smooth your hands then 🤣