A dress/casual belt you can print and assemble to any length. It takes a little more effort to print and assemble this belt than others, but the end result is well worth it. The flexible hinges (printed in nylon) are used to connect the various sections (printed in PLA). I have been wearing this belt for 7 months without any breakage. I use it full time and prefer it to my leather belt. Because of the hinge design the belt is quite thin, approximately 3/16”.

Place the hinge into the section and lightly tap down, with a 1/16” punch, till it hits the bottom. The hinge is secured to each section by a built-in pin. The pin is set with a 3/32” punch.

If you need to make the belt longer or shorter, just drill out the pin with a bit that is smaller than the pin diameter. Only drill down till you reach the hinge. Do not drill into the hinge. Tap the hinge out with an 1/16” punch. Remove or replace the part and secure with a new replacement pin.

I tried to make the hinges out of PLA and PETG without success, they must be made out of nylon. The PLA hinges only lasted 2-3 days. There are two hinges with different tab widths. I chose the 2.92 mm tab width. If that is too snug use the 2.88 mm hinge. Your printer can’t change the tab width, but you can change the hinge thickness and tab height by changing the first layer height along with the primary layer height.

The hinges should fit snug into the sections. The belt sections must be printed with .200 mm layer height. The hinge will be printed with around .100 to .120 mm primary layer height. Below is what worked out for me.

See the preview picture from my Simplify 3D slicer which shows 12 layers. As you change the layer height on your slicer, the number of layers for the hinge and tab can also change. Ideally the final hinge thickness should be .500 mm, tab height 1.000 mm and total tab height 1.500 mm.

Here is an example of the settings that worked for my printer and material to get the final hinge dimensions of .500, 1.000 and 1.500 mm:

4 layers in hinge thickness with normal layers printed at .1180 mm
1st layer 168% = .198 plus 3 layers at .1180 mm:
hinge thickness = (.198 + 3*.118) = .552 mm

8 additional layers in tab height with normal layers printed at .1180 mm
all layers .1180 mm:
tab height = (8*.1180) = .944 mm

12 layers in total height (hinge thickness plus tab height):
1st layer 168% = .198 plus 11 layers at .1180 mm:
total tab height = (.198 + 3*.118) = 1.496 mm

If you have a part that doesn't quite fit, let me know. I will work with you to find a solution.