Abstract

There's no need for much explanation. This is an alternative handle for a mailbox. These seem to be standard and should work for most other mailboxes.

The handle of my mailbox broke when I got the first roll of PETG filament, so I thought this would be a good project to try out new materials. I downloaded a model created by someone else. It fit the door, but it was a bit too small to hang on the top latch. I've been learning Fusion 360, and I thought this would be an easy thing to model myself.

I printed this using black PETG and didn't do any post-processing. It's perfect for the holes on the mailbox door. I was able to reuse the internal clips to secure the latch. If anyone needs the clips, please let me know and I'll give it a try. However, there are other related models available here as well.

Print settings

Printing brand:

Creality

Printers:                     

Ender 3

Raft layer:

No

Support:                     

Yes

Resolution:

0.2

Fill in:                     

75%

Wire and cable:Sunlu PETG
Black

My design process

I've been learning Fusion 360, and I think this will be a great first model.

I imported a damaged latch picture and placed a ruler next to it. I used the ruler and the calibration function to ensure that the image size was correct.

I used images to create sketches of different parts. The hook itself was stretched to 1 inch wide. Then, I created an offset plane at 0.5 inches to draw the protrusion that goes through the mailbox door. I drew half of the protrusion and used the stretch tool to create the protrusion by rotating around the center axis. I used the same offset plane to create the protrusion at the top of the hook, but it was stretched from the center in two directions.

After finishing the stretching, I added some rounded corners to some edges to make it look more beautiful. Then I combined all the parts and exported them as an .stl file.

I did have to go back and adjust the spacing of the protrusions once. But this version should be quite suitable.