S&G Spartan Electronic Lock Cover (Childproofing)

S&G Spartan Electronic Lock Cover (Childproofing)

What is this about?

A shooting buddy asked me to design a cover plate for the S&G Spartan electronic gun safe lock. His kid is getting old enough that it is interested in the buttons and playing around with them. And he didn't want to end up getting locked out of the safe due to too many wrong code entries.

I though this would be a fun project to play around with magnets embedded into the printed part. So I quickly whipped something up. The design uses 3x 2x20mm round magnets. But I have also included the Fusion360 project file, if you want to adapt it to your type of lock or your magnets.

How to print?

I printed it in SUNLU Easy ABS, but PLA, PETG or pretty much anything should work just fine. There are two alternative print orientations in the 3MF. One is optimized for quicker printing, but leaves the support interface layer visible on the outside of the final piece. The other one has a cleaner surface, but takes about twice the time and uses much more material for support. Pick whichever one you like better. I went with the faster one.

There are already pre-configured pauses for inserting the magnets. Simply put them into the holes (I'd suggest adding a tiny drop of super glue so they don't get lifted up by the steel nozzle) and resume printing (once they are firmly attached in place). See picture 4 and 5 for example (I marked the magnets for polarity, which is not important when attaching to the metal gun safe, only when interacting with other magnets).

Special considerations?

The 3MF contains a painted logo on the top of the cover. The actual geometry is only 0,01mm deep. So if you don't want this, simply paint it the same color as the main body and it will not show up in the final print.

My magnets were only ~1.6mm tall, although they were advertised as “2mm”. I designed the slots for the magnets to be exactly 2mm deep. So if your magnets are >1.8mm, I'd suggest modifying the design to ensure proper clearance for the nozzle when printing the next layer on top of the magnets.

With my magnets, the cover will not stay in place when just attached to a vertical metal wall. It will slide down due to the magnets not being strong enough to hold the weight in place. Once placed over the lock, it stays in place perfectly though, as the lock body prevents it from sliding down.