My Ender 3 is currently out of commission due to getting clogged up during a print. I will, at minimum, need to clean out the heating block and replace the nozzle. I probably should replace the whole hotend.
In the meantime, I thought I'd take the opportunity to write about the most recent system for which I'd been printing parts, and happened to have printed just enough to finish the job before the printer konked out.
I call the system 'drywall ports based on a 1+1/4-7-UNC nut and bolt', or 'p2375' (as noted in 3DPrintingData.tef).
How to use it:
- Drill a 1+1/2″ hole in your drywall where you want a port.
- Take one of the oval nuts, and with the spikes facing towards you, wrap some tape around the thin parts with an inch or so extending towards you, so that the stickey sides point away from each other.
- Put some glue (wood glue works, regular white glue probably also works) around the spikes.
- Slide the nut through the hole, hanging onto it so you don't lose it, and stick the tape to the wall to hold it in place.
- Thread the port into the nut. You can put a couple of #6 screws in the 'spanner wrench' and use it to help drive the port in. The tape should prevent the nut from turning too much while allowing enough movement for it to become centered. The flanges serve to center the port in the hole you drilled, and can also crush down the drywall around it slightly, like a drywall screw, so that the port ends up flush with the wall.
- Leave it there for a while so the glue can dry
- Now you have a cool port in the wall.
- Optional: remove the tape, if you trust the glue.
The original purpose of this was that I have some plants growing on a shelf in the Farmhouse office. To keep an eye on them while I'm gone, I bought some PoE cameras and a PoE switch. But the router is in another room, and currently there's no wiring between that room and the office. The proper solution would be to install ethernet ports in the wall and string the cable through the basement. But that would require some proper wall ports, which I didn't yet have when I started this project, and also doing some cutting in the basement ceiling, which is complicated by more drywall that somebody installed up there years ago when it was a 'finished' basement.
Drilling relatively small, circular holes through walls above doors seemed like it would be more expedient. But moreover, was something I had a long-standing hankering to try, anyway.
To test that the nut insertion technique would actually work, I started by installing one in a bit of scrap drywall in the basement.
Then I lost interest in this project on the basis that I didn't really want to mess with all the drywall dust, and that I could just move the plants to a different room.
And then a week later, when it was time to be packing to go to Madison, I decided that I wanted to get it done after all. "It'd be nice to have the cabling back there anyway", Or something like that.
As you can see, some of these holes were not so good. This is because I cut them using a 1½″ forstner bit, because that's what I had on hand. A hole saw or even a spade bit would probably have done a nicer job.
Drywall Port Part Designs
| STL ID | Description | Pics |
|---|---|---|
| p2404 | 2.5x1.5" oval nut with 1+1/4-7 inner threads with 0.5mm inset |  |
| p2405 | 1+1/2" OD, 1+1/4" ID 'washer' with 1/8" flanged front, for use with OvalNut0 or similar |  |
| p2411 | combined drywall washer/port with 1" inner threads and 1+3/8"-spaced 4mm spanner drive holes |  |
| p2412 | 'spanner wrench' with 1+3/8"-spaced 4.5mm diamond holes and 3" handle |  |