Stained Glass Angle Jig

A modular jig designed to hold pieces of stained glass at particular angles for soldering together into three-dimensional shapes.  The “set" includes a base for holding the jigs, as well as a bunch of jigs at various angles and number of sides.  While a bit more complicated than a Morton Board or similar, this design allows adding and printing new shapes with a minimum of extra cost in time and plastic.  

I originally designed this to facilitate the creation of Stained Glass Succulents.  But then it only seemed prudent to include the regular polyhedra as well.  I'm happy to add additional angles and shapes if people want them.

FEATURES

Articulating Base

When soldering steeper angles, there is a risk that the solder runs down the joint rather than cooling in place.  The articulating base allows for tilting the jig at any angle, so that the active joint can be laid “flat” to reduce solder running. 

Modular Jigs

Rather than printing each combination of sides and angles in its own solid base, this design reuses the base for each jig and only reprints the “top” surface of the jig for each new combination.  This saves on space (since they can be partially nested into each other when not in use), as well as filament.  

Labeled Jigs

The side count, angle, and polyhedral shape (if applicable) is debossed onto each jig, for easy identification.

VARIATIONS

6-Sided and 5-Sided Succulent Jigs

These jigs have either 5 or 6 faces and come in 4 angles: 10, 20, 30, and 40 degrees.  This allows for creating multi-layer succulents.

Polyhedra (Shape) JIgs

These jigs allow assembling of four of the five regular polyhedra: Cube, Octahedron, Dodecahedron, and Icosahedron.  Tetrahedrons are deep enough that it's difficult to assemble in this type of jig (although I can add it if there's a desire).

Simple Base

The first version of this design used a cup-shaped base.  This was simple to design and print, but because it held every jig at the same angle, the steeper jigs ran into solder running issues (see Articulating Base above).  I designed the Articulating Base to solve this issue.  However, for those who prefer a simpler solution, I also updated the Simple base to allow for two modes of tilting.

• There is a 30 degree flat that the base can be tipped onto, that will make most of the steeper jigs a lot less steep on the working (bottom) joint.  This option will likely require putting some sort of weight into the base to hold it on the angle.  
• There is a reinforced hole in the bottom that is sized to take a ¼"-20 x 6mm threaded insert (the standard thread for tripods).  This can be used to mount the base to one of those mini tripods, and then set at any desired angle.  Or you can just put a bolt and nut through it and mount it to anything you want.

Monolithic Base (NEW!)

The Articulated Base is made up of several flat panels printed flat against the bed, which are then slotted together.  This increases strength by setting up opposing layer lines, but it also requires much more assembly (and makes tolerances more important).  After assembling the first sets, I realized that this may have been a bit overkill.  So I designed a monolithic version of the frame that prints all as one piece.  It should still be plenty strong enough, as long as you print with thick enough walls.  

PRINTING

• All parts can be printed with a 0.8mm nozzle.  However, you'll get better surface quality with 0.6 or 0.4mm.
• All parts are designed to print with 0.2mm layer height, unless otherwise specified.
• All parts can be printed without added support.  Some jigs have built-in support legs.

Articulated Base - Base, Legs, Braces

(Pictured in White)

You will need 1 Base, 2 Legs, and 6 Braces.

All parts are designed to be printed flat and then assembled (for maximum layer line strength).  I'd recommend 0.2mm layer heights, 2-3 perimeters, and 1.2 to 1.6mm top and bottom thickness.  It only needs enough infill to hold up the top layers (I used 5% gyroid). 

Too much overextrusion can make the parts difficult to assemble, although there is some clearance designed into the parts.  Otherwise, these parts are pretty forgiving.

Articulated Base - Monolithic Base

(Not currently pictured)

Print right-side-up.  Since the legs and braces aren't being printed flat on the bed, they'll be less strong, so you may need to compensate with slightly thicker walls.  Infill should still be largely unnecessary.

If you use the Monolithic Base, you don't need to print any artBase_Base, artBase_Legs, or artBase_Braces.  You will still need a ring, knob, and endcap.

Articulated Base - Rim

(Pictured in Black)

Print solid.  Turn off “Thick Bridges” to avoid too much drooping in the threaded hole.  Add a brim to increase bed adhesion.

Articulated Base - Knob and Endcap

(Pictured in Gray/Purple)

Print the knob solid (since this part experiences a bit of torque).  The Endcap can be printed with just a few perimeters.  

The Knob threads will work just fine with 0.2mm layers.  However, if you're concerned about precision or your printer struggles with small overhangs, you can lower the layer height down to 0.12mm or similar.  

Simple Base

Print solid.  Pretty straightforward.  

Jigs - Solid

These jigs have steep enough angles that they can be printed “upside down”, which simplifies assembly.  They should be placed flat-side down and printed with a lot of cooling.  0.2mm layers work just fine for 0.8mm nozzles. You may need to go for a smaller layer height for smaller nozzles to get the overhangs to look nice.  

Jigs - Split

These jigs are more shallow, such that if printed upside down the “top” surface would have a poor surface quality due to the large overhang angle.  So the inner jig is printed right-side up, and the outer ring is printed separately (so that it can be printed flat).  The outer ring is the same for every jig with the same number of sides.  

There are support legs included in the model for the inner jig that will support the jig while it's being printed, and can be easily snapped, snipped, or cut off afterwards.  You should not need any additional support.  (The 10 degree jigs are always going to have a really gnarly surface quality on the bottom, unless you add a BUNCH of generated supports.  Fortunately, the bottom surface isn't functional, it just looks weird.)

A brim is basically mandatory for the inner jig, since there is otherwise very little surface area on the print bed.

As with the solid jigs, a 0.2mm layer height will work fine for 0.8mm nozzles, but you may need to use smaller layer heights for smaller nozzles.  

Jigs - Extended

For jigs that only have 3 sides, a lot of surface area is lost on the flat ring, which would limit the size of piece that can be made.  So these jigs were designed to go UP as well as DOWN, all the way to the edge of the ring.  (Sorry if that description doesn't make any sense.  See pictures for clarification).  

These jigs should be printed the same as the Split jigs.  However, instead of a flat outer ring, there is a second Outer part that needs to be printed right-side-up.  The Outer part doesn't need support or a brim.

POSTPROCESSING

Articulated Base

1. (If not using Monolithic Base) Slot the braces into the holes in the base and legs (see pictures), and glue them in place.  It's probably best to do a dry-fit before gluing, to make sure all the tolerances work.  You can use CA glue, epoxy, or even hot glue.  

• (Optional) Use some course sandpaper to roughen up the surface around the tops of the legs and the flats on the rings, where they contact each other.  This will create more friction when the knob is tightened.

1. Place the ring inside the sides of the legs.  The ring should be oriented such that the tab slots are facing up.  It doesn't matter which hole goes on which side of the stand.
2. Thread the knob through the hole on the stand into the threaded hole on the ring, and gently tighten.  
3. Place a small dab of hot glue on the end of the endcap and press it through the other hole of the stand into the unthreaded hole in the ring, pressing firmly so it seats and stays.  You can also use a more permanent glue if the hot glue doesn't hold.  It makes disassembly more difficult, but I don't imagine you'll need to disassemble it unless something else breaks.

Simple Base

(Optional) use a soldering iron to embed a ¼"-20 threaded insert into the hole on the bottom, to allow the base to be threaded onto a tripod.

Jigs - Split and Extended

1. Break, cut, or snip off the support legs (and brim).  I found the best way was to just work them back and forth a few times and they snap off pretty cleanly.  But flush cutters or a rotary tool work as well.
2. Gently sand the outer edge of the inner jigs, and the inner edge of the outer rings.  This will help with clearances and glue adhesion.  Before applying glue, do a test fit.
3. Glue each inner jig into the corresponding outer ring.  I'd recommend thick CA glue with a kicker, but a fast epoxy or even hot glue would probably work just fine if you can hold the parts in place.  just make sure there's not too much buildup of glue on the top surface.  If you have a 3D pen, it's a remarkably effective method of “welding” the pieces together.

USE

The knob can be loosened to adjust the ring to any angle.  Just loosen the knob a bit, tilt the ring, and tighten it back down.  You shouldn't need to put too much force on the knob.

All of the jigs have at least one tab that lines up with an Edge (the part of the jig where two pieces of glass would touch).  When placing the jig into the ring, make sure that one of the "Edge" tabs lines up with the tab slot that is equidistant between the knob and endcap.  That way, there is an edge that is "down" when the ring is tilted. 

This google doc contains jig specifications and the shape/angle needed for the glass pieces to work with each jig: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S5PtkFtU__TZjEcC6cBAixtnEc3IsWeQzCwzDJpOwS0/edit?usp=sharing

FEEDBACK

I'm always gratified to hear from people about how my designs can be improved or expanded.  I'm also happy to create additional angles and side-numbers.  The design is parametric, so it's pretty trivial to create new variants.  

VERSIONS

V1 - Initial Version

V2

• Added Articulated Base
• Some tweaks to clearances
• Added specification document link

V3

• Added a Monolithic Frame for the Articulated Base, to reduce need for assembly