3D Printed Ratcheting Band Clamp for Woodworking

In this (short) Instructable I'm going to show you how I designed and made a corner clamp for fixing and gluing anything square (boxes, drawers, shelfs, etc.). I designed the part super quick because my dad was assembling some chairs and needed some clamps to glue them in place. The clamps took 6 hours a piece to print so by the time all four were done he didn't really need them anymore but now I get to make this instructable :)

3D printer - to print the parts

Ratchet strap - you don't need it to make the clamps but you need it if you want to clamp something

Nothing much to say here, I fired up SolidWorks and designed the part.

I wanted to make the clamp foot hinged so it wouldn't have to be perfectly centered in order to tighten correctly. The clamps are rather big and clunky so I could use a smaller infill when printing without much fear of it breaking.

Parts in the images are different from from the final design I am uploading here because I realized that there is too much material in the original design so I added holes to achieve faster printing times. I haven't tested the strength of the updated design but judging by the parts I printed (which are genuinely indestructible) the new ones should be plenty strong.

To print the part you need (obviously) access to a 3D printer. The clamp is intended to be "print in place" meaning you print it already assembled but I will add separate parts as well if you want to assemble them in your slicer.

I printed my parts using the "normal" preset in Cura with 40% infill and support everywhere. As I said before, it took about 6 hours a piece to print. With the new design it should be somewhere under 5 hours a piece to print while also using less filament, about 50 grams a piece depending on the infill.

The parts should be strong enough for normal ratcheting as long as they have at least 3 wall lines and 30% so you could reduce printing time and filament use further if you needed to.

Arm yourself with patience and repeat the print three times. Don't worry though, you won't have to work nearly as much as your printer.

Once you have four pieces you can use them to clamp down anything you want. The clamp makes for easier gluing and joining of something rectangular but thanks to the articulating hinge you also have a bit more freedom with angles in your woodworking.