You know those spring lock buttons on tent poles, crutches, painter extension poles, etc?

You can find them online but they are sold in bulk.

Often you only need one or two.

Now you can DiWhy your own.

(1) Take the steel "wings" of an office binder clip.
(2) 3d print a button that fits the binder clip wire diameter and the pole hole for protrusion.
(3) Take pliers and bend one side of the binder clip wing to flush, so the lock button is exposed on one side (trust me, it's a lot easier to use and fit than buttons on both sides).
(4) Insert the binder clip + button into the pole.

This STL is for 3d printing the lock buttons (customizable via PythonSCAD as well. You'd need to install it on pythonscad.org). It is parameterized for:

• Curvature of the inner diameter of the pole the button fits into.
• Diameter of the spring lock button
• Diameter of the binder clip wire
• Height of the button
• (Optional) add a spherical dome to the tip of the lock button. I turn this off by default since my Prusa i3 would "booger" when printing small parts, and having an open top makes it easy to do post-print cleanups on where the binder wire would go.

Because it is a small print, do it at the fine detail setting for your printer.

On my Prusa i3, 0.07mm was the perfect setting.

I had to do this for a hand truck I bought at an estate sale that had a shitty nail thru the holes instead of a lock clip button. I tried to find some online but they only sell them in bulk.