Big Agnes TipLok adapter (Pre 2020 Tent to New Ground Cloth)

Adapter to connect pre-2020 Big Agnes tent fly with standard side release buckle (male) to new style Tiplok buckle (female).

This adapter contains the new style TipLok (male) to the old style (female). See the original design (of which this is a "remix") for the opposite male/female.

I do not have a background in CAD and am relatively new to 3D printing. After many iterations, both ends fit well on my tent. The design is not perfect, I'm sure it could have been made much sleeker, but it works.

The Male has a small amount of support that will need to be removed from beneath the prongs (easily pulled off with filament side cutters). I have played around with and without support for the female portion and tried using support blockers. Ultimately I settled on printing with support, set to 10% infill, which seemed to work well. Support removal is a bit tricky, but needle nose pliers, side cutters, and patience seemed to do the trick.

Printed on a glass bed. I generally struggle with too much adhesion and found putting the build plate in the freezer after printing made removal effortless.

Material-wise, I am curious to print these with PETG but I currently only have PLA on hand. Printed at 205 C, 60 C, 50 mm/s speed.

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Creality

Printer: 

Ender 3 Pro

Rafts:

No

Supports: 

Yes

Resolution:

0.2

Infill: 

40

Filament: Inland PLA Black

How I Designed This

Designed using Fusion360 by referencing online photos, scaled as canvases, and dimensioning off of my tent's buckles. I learned a lot along the way and am happy to continue revising the design.

Category: Sport & Outdoors