Print a nori seaweed clip for your herbivores with a 3D printer

by | Jul 9, 2012 | Advanced Aquarist | 0 comments


Print a nori seaweed clip for your herbivores with a 3D printer


The final 3D printed nori clip printed in Natural colored ABS.

Nori clip rendering
Nori clip rendering

This particular project was pretty easy all things considered. I wanted a simple nori clip that I could just suction cup onto the side of a tank. Marine Depot and Premium Aquatics list simple plastic nori clips for $2-$3 and they are 100% plastic. Fortunately I found something fairly similar on Thingiverse designed by J_Hodgie for this project.

This particular clip printed in three parts: two grippers and a spring clip to provide the tension. The two things I did not like about it, though, was it had narrow clip ends and that I needed one of the ends longer with a hole in it to accept a suction cup.

I downloaded the file and imported it into Sketchup (which I have talked about before here and here). Using Sketchup’s Push/Pull tool, I widened the clip ends by 10 mm on each side and lengthened one of the clip ends and added a suction cup hole. I then exported all three parts for printing. 30 minutes later my clip was printed and ready for assembly. After a bit of clean up with sandpaper, I inserted the clip and suction cup and it was ready for use.

I’ve uploaded the design files to Thingiverse so that others can print their own.

Give me a challenge: what would you like to see me print?  I want your ideas!

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