Push-in Hook
Razzer09April 6, 2023
Description
This is a Push-in Hook I designed by taking inspiration from various sources. The main body can be printed on its side WITHOUT SUPPORTS from PLA or PETG. The insert needs to be printed in a flexible material like TPU. I used an Inlay with 3x 0.2 mm Layer for a hardness 95A TPU (That is rather stiff). For a more flexible material use 4 or more Layers. If you don't pick the right one for your preferences on the first try, you can easily print another and swap them out later. Be careful you don't get your finger stuck 😉
How I designed this:
The first time I saw this kind of towel holder was this commercially available model from amazon. I think they work really well and I have used them many times. So I wanted to order more of them, but at around 6€ per piece this gets expensive rather quickly.
So I looked on Aliexpress and found these triangular shaped ones at around 1-1.50€ a piece, which is much cheaper. Unfortunately as soon as I used them the first time I immediately found out that they did not work as good as the more expensive ones I used before.
So I looked on Printables to see if there are similar designs online to print myself. I found these 2 rather promising looking models which I printed and testet with a few other functional looking models from this collection.
Towel Holder (Customizable) by geit_de | Download free STL model | Printables.com
TPU Push-in Hook by BaGooN | Download free STL model | Printables.com
Collection: Towel Holder Collection by Razzer09 | Printables.com
Testing these hooks and learning from their pros and flaws I started designing my own. My notes can be found under the pictures below:
→ Opening too wide. Small towels easily slip through.
→ Cannot push in towels deep enough. Only mountable with screw.
→ These do not seem to work for me. I cannot get any towel to stick well.
→ Clamp force too weak.
→ Magnets to weak. Does need extra materials to be bought.
→ Fragile and sticks too far out from the wall.
→ Works well but needs loop on towel. Also does take some time to find the loop.
→ Destroys towel and is kinda dangerous if you were to fall on it 😅
→ Works really good. Fast and secure. Longevity questionable due to slim section at the end of the clamp.
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After these tests I first started mimicking the model from Amazon which I liked the most of them all.
Unfortunately this model did not hold the towel as secure as the commercially available product.
Putting the hole at a 45° and later at 90° angle improved stability drastically.
With this knowledge armed I slimmed down my design and tried to remove material wherever possible. As you can the inlay was not very secure at this point. To improve that I added an endstop and some pins inside the slot.
Which leaves us with the final 3 designs. Same core design, just a different angle. Print 90° for the most secure towel hook. From my testing though the 60° angled one (most left) works fairly similar and it is more comfortable to use.
Feel free to ask any questions and please try them for yourself. Looking forward to your feedback. 👍
