Measure Existing Threads to 3D Print a New Cap/Lid

EDIT: When designing the height of the lid, it should actually be a little SHORTER instead of taller, to insure it seats at the opening of the bottle neck. Instead of making my cap 12mm heigh (from the 11.5), I should have decreased the height a little bit....so maybe 11mm instead.
As always, this is a long format video, shot in one take. In this video I show you how to take measurements off an existing bottle and design a threaded cap for it, so you can 3D print it.
If you have any tips and tricks for the rest of us, please leave them in the comments. .
Got ideas for a tutorial? Let me know in the comments!
#3dprinting #fusion360

[@Dsk001]

One tip. When you were making the coil you spoke about doing some calculation to be able to have more threads and keep teh same pitch. There is a way to do it without having to calculate anything. In the coil feature change the type to revolution and pitch or height and pitch. With either option you get to enter the pick and then either enter how many revolutions you want or the height of the space and it will fill it with the needed revolutions.

[@ShopTherapy623]

That is a great tip! I completely missed that! Thank you!

[@barneyfife2136]

@@ShopTherapy623 Just watched the video and was going to ask that exact question. Thanks for pointing that out.

[@8liontv]

4 years of industrial design college and they didn't teach us any of what you just taught me in 30 minutes!

[@krazekilla224]

I watched this video because of this comment! Info was presented well and easy to understand!

[@CarbonKevin]

...the bottom "lip" is absolutely, positively not part of the sealing feature. That's accomplished at the top edge of the bottle. If the bottom flange had anything to do with sealing, we'd expect to have wet threads every time we open the bottle, which for anything sticky would translate to lids that are glued on.

[@ShopTherapy623]

I don't think I said it seals it, but I did misspeak. What I meant to say is that the threads can't go past that lip, so the cap height should be LESS than that. I accidentally made it more. However, it still seals at the top because I lowered the threads in the lid. This is what happens when I make a video without practicing it and do it in one take! Thanks for the comment!

[@michaels3003]

Without the stop, if somebody keeps rotating the cap, the threads will skip. This can cause some damage if done repeatedly (as the wise man said: "Stupid is, stupid does").

[@timw4561]

I was trying to model a vent cap for an old gas can that I have with a missing cap. This video makes the process in fusion so easy. I was going about it the hard way. Thanks! Definitely subbed to your channel!

[@chrisl2656]

It’s also worth browsing the standard threads Fusion makes available. E.g. A 1.125” 10 tpi thread (Fusion calls it “ANSI Unified Screw Threads, 1.125in, 1 1/8-10 UNS”) with the minor diameter and one of the the thread surfaces offset by -0.1mm produces an excellent fit on a lemonade bottle.

[@zephaone]

Thanks!

[@ShopTherapy623]

My first “Super Thanks” - thank you!! That’s very kind of you

[@pavelperina7629]

I "enjoyed" this last week when I tried to design threads compatible with European milk bottle. Important dimension is thread outer diameter 38mm, there are 3 threads with 3mm spacing, so spiral is 9mm per turn. But fun starts with tolerances and material. Printed cap works with original battle, printed bottle neck works with original cap, but both printed parts do not work together, cause PLA is too tough, has sharp edges and there are 0.12mm steps from layers. I used telephotos at minimal focus distance to get the profile without much distortion and calibrated it from known dimensions and used it for measuring profiles. Cap is much more complicated design than it seems and cap has three points of contact - there's like 3mm long (i don't remember) pipe which extends outwards a bit and this goes inside the bottle, makes contact with inner wall and bends inwards. Then there is other tiny ring that pushes agaist outer chamfer/wall on the very top of bottle and bends outwards. Then finally bottle pushes against the lid. But lid is made from soft polyethelyne and for 3d printing I'm not aware that other soft materials than TPU/TPE exist and these are not convenient to print/dry. It seems that whole world except US uses neck finishes standardized by Cetie, but dimensions are not available, they offer to buy specs for like 150EUR and 3d models of specific parts for 35EUR or so.

[@Container-11]

crazy!!!

[@ahmetcancoklu8012]

I'm still watching video but i paused it to write this comment. You are a great teacher ! Liked, subscribed and now i can continue to watch. Thanks.

[@ZeedijkMike]

What a nice and relaxing way to demonstrate a quite complicated 3D problem. Easy to follow, even though I'm not a Fusion user. Recently started with OnShape, previously mainly using OpenScad and AutoCad 2007 - Yes a very old version. So both OnShape and Fusion's user interface is totally new to me.

[@rjg999]

Talk about perfect timing! I'm working on some mason jar lids and couldn't find a default thread that worked. Then here comes your wonderful tutorial...Thank you!!

[@ShopTherapy623]

awesome! Let me know how it works for you!

[@rjg999]

@@ShopTherapy623 Print just completed...and my lid works like charm! My wife just put in an 'order' for 10 more lids...brownie points coming my may LOL Thanks again!

[@CerealKiller187]

Thanks a ton for putting this video together and so clearly teaching the methods you use. Huge, huge help.

[@aquirion]

Thanks, just starting out in fusion , but i was very clear and usefull . Picked up many tips !

[@Mark-h6k1w]

Well done! Thanks for explaining and showing how the measurements are taken -- very useful.

[@the4thj]

Like the way you teach! Thank you.

[@michaels3003]

Very nice work to get people started. FYI, most of the threads on cheap plastic caps have asymmetrical shapes. For a loose fit that does not matter. I am hoping to make a closer match for the real cap some day; to see if I can do it. You can test thread quality by putting some water in the bottle and shaking it upside down.

[@krazekilla224]

Saved to my "3D Printing Help" folder and subscribed! Good info presented clearly and easy to understand!

[@ChrisOndrovic]

Great tutorial and explanation

[@jaymiddleton772]

Thanks! I followed the steps and my bottle cap worked first try. Mine needed 2x threads so I made the first and added the second with a circle pattern. My custom bottle cap will let me use old juice bottles as fly traps

[@polia1694]

There is a "Thread" option in the "Create" menu that lets you create a thread on a selected surface with all the options for different type of threads. Saves a lot of time.

[@ShopTherapy623]

Yes, absolutely. This isn't necessarily about creating threads, but rather learning skills in Fusion 360. If you can find the exact thread you need in the thread tool, then absolutely you can do that. You'll just need to make sure the proper clearance is there to fit nicely onto your existing bottle.

[@michaels3003]

You will need to know the name and size used for making the plastic bottle that he showed. The main problem is 3D printing: the thread overhangs are not precise. This is why loose threads are created. No shape problem with injection molding; only material shrinkage (I think).

[@michael7370]

Great video! I'm barely starting to learn fusion and this was a great video to A: teach a functional project (i actually wanted to make a cap already) B: learn some fusion tools in general. Thanks a lot!

[@MikkoRantalainen]

6:45 I think it would be better to have "tolerance" and/or "clearance" in the parameters, too, so the spec of other parts could be zero tolerance measurements and you can define the diameter in the sketch as inside_diameter + clearance * 2 (or whatever way you want to think about clearance for round objects).

[@ShyneflowLC]

What a great video... you explain it all perfectly

[@ShopTherapy623]

Thanks for watching! I’m glad you were able to follow along!

[@zheyabgav]

Immediately when I needed a cap for a bottle, your video shows up in KZbin recommendations. Great work.

[@ShopTherapy623]

Isn’t that crazy how that always works out?

[@michaels3003]

Yes, YT is reading our minds...

[@jimjacques8653]

very well done, never knew how this was made

[@osherezra8460]

Best Thread tutorial on KZbin cheers

[@ShopTherapy623]

Wow! I’m not sure I believe it, but I really appreciate the compliment!

[@ninthm00n]

2 minutes in and already subbed. Great info!

[@senjos]

Well explained!! ;)

[@ShopTherapy623]

Thanks for watching!

[@chaos.corner]

Measuring threads is fine but many of these are standard sizes so I usually check to see if it's already specced out there. Then I measure anyway cause the world likes to throw curveballs. Knowing the spec means you can make accommodations for variations more easily as many values will be nominal.

[@ShopTherapy623]

You can definitely look up the (usually) standard threads they use, but by the time you’re done searching for that, I would already have it measured and drawn in Fusion.

[@RobRoschewsk]

I never would have got that on the first try. Nice work.

[@ProblemSolver3D]

very helpful video, thank you ❤

[@Container-11]

Great. Thanks for showing us

[@StoneCut]

Excellent video, many thanks

[@TinTalon]

That was cool to watch. Thanks for explaining things so well.

[@ShopTherapy623]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Archivort]

Very cool!

[@jimmyjpa]

Thank you for the great video!

[@robertpittman3299]

Thank you for this 😀

[@siliconghost]

Super helpful. Thanks

[@MikkoRantalainen]

0:55 Correctly made cap seals on the top surface of the bottle opening and doesn't even touch the neck while tightened. The only thing you need to consider is not to make the cap too long.

[@ShopTherapy623]

Yes, I got confused when making the video and said the opposite of what I meant to say. Cap should have been shorter not longer. However since I offset the threads in the cap, it still seals at the top.

[@TimothyBurt]

@@ShopTherapy623 i noticed this as well. However, I believe that the longer cap will bottom out against the flange before the lip of the bottle can seat against the cap. The Offset threads don't help. Also I noticed a pressure bypass grove in the threads which allows the liquid to pass all the way to the flange leaving you with dirty threads. A cap that is shorter would be better suited.

[@k_svensson]

I think you explained this perfectly. Looks really nice and easy to follow along. I have one question though.. since you made the height of the cap a bit higher, I think there may be a risk that the fluid from the bottle could leak out to the threads but stop at the bottom thread. Could it be an improvement to actually make the cap a bit shorter so the bottle is touching the inside of the cap.. so it becomes tighter there? Does that make sense? Thanks!

[@ShopTherapy623]

Yes cap should probably be a little shorter, especially if trying to make it water/air tight. With 3d printing, the only way to achieve that would be to add a gasket. However, since I lowered the threads inside the lid, the cap still does seat at the top, not at the lip on the bottom.

[@tobias561]

Your calioer also has a depth gage, and a inner diameter gage. which is more precise than holding it next to it an eyeball it

[@ShopTherapy623]

Of course, but nothing needed to be that accurate for this

[@chaos.corner]

An equilateral triangle will be near the overhang limits for many 3d printers (60 degrees) so I usually use right-angled (45 degrees).

[@ShopTherapy623]

Generally I'd agree, but these threads only stick out by about 1-1.5mm, so about 3-4 layers, which is easily done on a 3D printer at 60 degrees, especially if you slow down the print speed on overhangs. You should definitely choose the shape of the thread based on the situation.

[@gear_ant]

This is great. What do i do if i want to thread the entire thing? Would i just multiply the pitch by the entire height?

[@ShopTherapy623]

You can change the settings in the coil window to “height and pitch.” Those in the height of your cap and the pitch and it’ll fill it.

[@Joe-sx6jg]

Nice video!! How did you add a "sticky note" to your screen? Can't find any info on how to do that.

[@ShopTherapy623]

Oh sorry, I guess I could’ve explained that. The sticky note is just from windows, not fusion 360.

[@hanslain9729]

Thank you!

[@nickst2797]

Thank you for the video! I am in a situation where I have an object like your bottle in this example and I want to replicate its thread in my 3d prints. I don't want the cap, jus the cad for the bottle. How do i reverse engineer this thread? Could you do a video on it as well? Thank a ton!

[@ShopTherapy623]

You will take the measurements exactly like I show in the video, and instead of creating threads on the inside of a cylinder, you put them on the outside. It’s the same process

[@nickst2797]

@@ShopTherapy623 Thank you so much!

[@ShopTherapy623]

I will make a video on it!

[@ShyneflowLC]

Do you have a video for doing threads the reverse way?

[@ShopTherapy623]

I’m not sure what you mean by the “reverse way.”

[@ShyneflowLC]

@ShopTherapy623 apologies i mean outside threads for something you have inside threads on

[@ShopTherapy623]

You’ll do it exactly the same, but on the opposite surface.

[@ShyneflowLC]

@@ShopTherapy623 thank you !!

[@Real_Atomik]

I like it, nice and simple! What version of Fusion 360 are you running?

[@ShopTherapy623]

I have an educational license!

[@andyb7754]

Very interesting and informative video, thank you. I'd love to learn Fusion, but I think I'm too old! LOL! One thing, during the measuring and after printing, the volume was perfect. During the initial drawing in fusion the volume was low and hard to hear. Just FYI. Thank you again for this video.

[@ShopTherapy623]

Thank you for the feedback! I still haven’t figured out how to get great/consistent audio yet. Working on it though!

[@michaels3003]

There is no age limit for Autodesk Fusion. I recently saw a comment from a 90-year-old person.

[@genin69]

Just a pro tip with regards to audio and placement of mi mcrophone. If its close to ur mouth or throat you need to aware swallowing. Cause it records that gulp swallow an3e once ur ear hears it, its amplified loudly

[@ShopTherapy623]

I know!! I haven’t quite figured out my audio setup yet. I know it’s really important. I bought a $100 microphone (it’s ok), but don’t have a great space for audio recording yet! Hopefully will continue to improve.

[@genin69]

@ShopTherapy623 most recording studio will have the mic almost eye level so ur kinda speaking up into it. Or wear a baseball cap and have protrude over the brim. That way it catches the vocals going up and not so much the downstairs vocals 😅 during live concerts most mics also taped to the cheek and sits next to the mouth but there are also mic speaking techniques were learn to not swallow. I used to do a lot of voice work back in the day and swallowing was always one of the big no nos during recordings. Sound engineer would yell at you all the time😂

[@ShopTherapy623]

I've been running most of my audio through Adobe Podcast - It uses AI to get rid of most of those sounds. If you listen to some of my other/newer videos, you'll hear the difference. I actually forgot to do that to this audio, which is why it sounds awful!

[@mik_88]

God bless you sir.

[@PeterOhlmus]

Great vid. What's that little notepad/note app you use here and there with your measurements - it's at 12:01?

[@ShopTherapy623]

That is just a sticky note. It’s an app on windows.

[@PeterOhlmus]

@@ShopTherapy623 Thanks!

[@birdmun]

Just a quick nitpick comment. When you mentioned getting the cap clearance from .2 to .25, if you were to have stepped back and thought I'm at 32.4, .4/2 = .2 then .5/2 = .25.

[@ShopTherapy623]

100% right. My brain doesn't always work "on the spot" when doing these videos. lol

[@jeffwhite9001]

Been wanting to do this for ages, have these glass bottles with no lids that I need, followed your guide and the first print worked! Need to tidy up a few little things but all good. Now to learn how to put a texture on the outside of the lid. One stupid question, I can't figure out how to change the view of the object apart from clicking top, left etc up in the right hand corner, how do you simply click the mouse and drag the object around?

[@ShopTherapy623]

You click with the wheel on your mouse and then move around. If using a laptop, I believe you hold down shift and click and move (I may be wrong about the laptop). I have a video on my channel about it!

[@raphofthehills4405]

Rotating the object view (orbiting?) is done with the middle mouse button. Panning (ie dragging up/down/left/right) is SHIFT + middle mouse button. The above assumes that the "Pan, Zoom, Orbit shorcuts" setting in Preferences is set to PowerMill.

[@jeffwhite9001]

@@ShopTherapy623 lol, simple, thanks for that, brain was half asleep, you wouldn't also believe I just re-started 360 after an update and the very first tool tip that came up was the exact thing, how to move the model around. Thanks, brilliant simple video too that explains it very well.

[@3DJapan]

I did this with a soda bottle to make a aquirting nozzle. Except I made the model in MoI 3D.

[@MikkoRantalainen]

22:48 This is actually the sealing surface of a bottle cap!

[@ShopTherapy623]

Yes, I have responded to this mistake I made many times already in the comments, I appreciate it though.

[@soliath8358]

i think im too stupid for this :-/ i dont get it ive done it three times now and my cap still wont fit. im trying to make a specail cap for my bottle that holds airsoft bb's

[@ShopTherapy623]

hmmm..is the cap too loose or two tight?

[@RechlerDudi]

Nice, yet, unless I'm wrong, it is seen on your video that there is a code embossed on the neck, next to the thread. I believe googling that code will get you the drawing or dimensions of the cap and thread. Not 100% sure though...

[@ShopTherapy623]

Yeah it might! Not positive. The purpose of this video isn’t necessarily to show people how to make a cap, but rather just learn new skills/techniques.

[@riggsron]

Like is not a strong enough adjective. This was interesting enough that I watched the whole thing without my ADHD kicking in. Thank you. I LIKED, Subscribed and also saved.

[@odinata]

Exactly what I need. Can you save your bottle creations as a Parameter, sorted by category, brand, size, or whatever? It would be cool to build an online encyclopedia of different threads found in the wild. Tame them.

[@ShopTherapy623]

I believe you can do something like that with the paid versions, but I'm not familiar with the tool/technique

[@peter-d9f3l]

Make sure you don't use a 3D printed cap for storing any liquids to be consumed or rubbed on your body. Home-level 3D printing materials range from "not food safe" to "dangerous to humans if they're not 100% cured". Commercial 3D printing may be food safe, but would probably cost as much as or more than just buying a food safe bottle with a cap.

[@dougal6569]

Nice video on manual thread making, BUT it seems to me that you are designing to seal the cap to that external lip. And that doesn’t make a good cap. When tipped with the cap in place, the bottle content can flow over the thread as far as the lip. Which means that when opened, both threads will be ‘dirty’ with whatever product. It will become messy very quickly! I think your design concept would be better, actually very well, suited to a fastener (nuts, bolts, threaded holes, etc). But a more practical cap design would aim to tighten down on the very top of the bottle and make the seal there, keeping the threads as clean as possible. I think that the design purpose of that external lip (flange?) has do with the security (anti-tamper) seal that is broken on first opening the bottle, rather than retaining the contents inside the bottle.

[@ShopTherapy623]

No I am designing to seal at the opening, which is why inset the threads into the cap. It still seats at the top. I probably didn’t explain that well and maybe shouldn’t have increased height to 12. I can see how that’s confusing.

[@dougal6569]

@ Confused me for sure! In order to prevent the external lip from blocking a top seal that initial height needs to be some clearance tolerance less than the measured 12. The big take away for me is to maximise the use of “parameters” to generalise whatever design - not merely for iterative refinement, but to create a whole family of products from the one design. In coding terms, declare the variables outside of the method.

[@Remy21289]

You could also just say thanks for the great tutorial 😊

[@dougal6569]

@@Remy21289 in case my gratitude went unnoticed when I expressed appreciation, let me now record my thanks for a video that interested me and held my attention while educating me. The point of the video was, after all, manual thread-making rather than bottle cap making! 🙂 // and I did hit Like long before commenting…

[@ScottHess]

I think the flange is likely part of the inflation process.

[@gullenator1]

Why not just use the thread maker tool?

[@ShopTherapy623]

If it’s a standard thread size, you definitely can.

[@BobGarrett66]

@gullenator1 Although the thread maker tool might work; if you’re 3D printing the threaded item, clearance compensation will become a factor. That isn’t “embedded” in Fusion’s thread generator. This way would probably make fine adjustments for a 3D print easier to do when you want to have a good fit. YMMV

[@ClaytonMacleod]

You can create custom threads definitions that are any size you wish. You are not limited to standard sizes. I wrote a python script for automatically handling clearances for 3D printed threads based on thread pitch. As a bonus it also does some housekeeping on custom threads definition files when new versions of Fusion 360 come out, since for some reason they use a new folder for threads definitions every time they release a new version. You can find it in the Fusion 360 subreddit by searching for my post called 3D printed threads help.

[@michaels3003]

​@@ClaytonMacleod, the name was changed to Autodesk Fusion in January 2024. The "360" moniker is gone. I don't think it will come back.

[@ClaytonMacleod]

@@michaels3003 🤷‍♂️ Doesn’t matter if Autodesk changes the name to Fish Grease, the subreddit is still called Fusion360.

[@AtomkeySinclair]

I create the thread by itself, then I boolean out it's mated part from that as well and scale it for gap.

[@ShopTherapy623]

Having a male and female threads is totally fine. I prefer having two male threads. They seem to work better.

[@AtomkeySinclair]

@@ShopTherapy623 I have to admit though. I made several before it would work :) And it's even more aggravating with resin prints instead of filament because the coefficient of friction doesn't want to cooperate - resin binds depending... Thanks for commenting.

[@jackflash6377]

The lid does not seat on that lip. The lid seats on the opening. Just look at the seal in the cap, see the indentations where it contacted the opening lip? The lower lip is for the tamper ring. You know, the one that you have to twist the lid to break. Sorry, lost all credibility when you said that.

[@ShopTherapy623]

the cap still seats at the top because I inset the threads into the cap. If you wanted this air/water tight, you’d need to add a gasket for a 3D printed cap. That would decrease the space ever more to insure it seats up top. This probably wasn’t explained super well in the video. Shooting a video for the first time, in one take….sometimes is hard to do. Cap should have been a little shorter, not taller.