3D Printed Guitar Capo

I've played guitar for a couple of years now and I have never used a capo. So I decided instead of just buying one, why don't I make one! Today I'll be showing you how I went through the process of making mine to hopefully inspire you or give you a blueprint to making one. I will also go over my thought process in each section and why I did some things here and there. I made my design in tinker cad which is free and a great website to start making 3D prints on for beginners. Lets get started.

When making a guitar capo, there are 2 things that usually hold everything together. One being a spring, and two being the pin in the top corner. The pin is a good part to start on since that will help play a role in the size of your capo.

First, I started with two cylinders. Making one 6.67 W x 6.67 L and 15.55 in height. Then I made the other 1.00 In height and 10.00 W x 10.00 L. Once the measurements were done for that part, I stacked the small disc like cylinder on top of the shaft like cylinder, took the snap grid off, and lined it up evenly. After I triple checked to make sure it was aligned, I grouped them together. (Note I made the sides in the inspector tab 64 to make it silky smooth when printed and not rough edged, did this for almost everything.)

**This next part is optional**

I wanted the pin to have a hole in the pin so that its not a normal filled in pin. Again I made two cylinders, but this time I made them "Holes" in the inspector tab, or you can chose the hole version in the side bar (Making them holes can cut out parts of the pin). I made the one that will be on top 3.10 W x 3.10 L and 12.00 In height. The bottom I made 3.90 W x 3.90 L and 7.50 in height. I made them tall enough to stick out a bit before grouping them and so that I can move them around while being in the pin. I aligned them and stacked them, then grouped everything and the pin was finished.

This one is a bit of a long one, but it's the most important.

First I made a square, I made it 14.20 W x 89.80 L and 15.00 in height. This will be the top part that clamps down onto the strings. I decided I want some design, but nothing crazy. I wanted it simple but not basic. I went to the side bar on the right, clicked the drop down menu at the top, clicked "All" under "Shape Generators", went to page 12 and found the shape "MetaFillet". It makes perfect curves around the corners of squares/rectangles when made into a hole. I Favorited it and made 5 hole versions of them. You will only need 2 for now, I measured 7.35 W x 8.50 L and 19.80 in height (so I can move it around at the top) for both MetaFillet pieces (and made them holes). Fitted one and mirrored the 2nd one to match it on the other side at the end on the corners of the piece. Once that's done, you should have a smooth curved end.

Next for the handle part I decided not to cheap out with a just a square. I made 2 squares and measured 12.00 W x 77.0 L and 3.33 for the height. I set them aside and made a "round roof" and measured 16.34 W x 90.24 L and 3.00 for the height. Rotated it to the left 90 degrees to make it the back part, then aligned the rectangles to it. I put one on the bottom and one on the top. Then I grabbed two more MetaFillets and measured them to be 12.90 W x 66.30 L and 9.00 for the height.I aligned them perfectly to curved with the half roof and grouped them to the rectangles to give the handle a curvy look.

Last but not least comes the pins area on the handle. Before that though, I used the last MetaFillet to curve the top corner so that it flows from the top part to the half roof smoothly. Then I measured a square hole to be 14.00 W x 14.20 L and 11.10 in height. After that I placed it how I found best in the top corner within the inside and grouped it to the handle to make a cutout on the inside (to fit the jaws connector in), Once I did that I made a cylinder hole and measured it to the pin and made a cut out through the top and bottom of the new cutout. Once I made sure everything seemed to fit alright within tinker cad all that was left was to make a little cylinder within the inside for the spring. Depending on what spring you choose to use is how you should measure it. I measured mine at 5.00 W x 5.00 L and 4.00 for the height. Then I made a half circle measured at 8.00 W x 7.90 L and 2.00 for the height. Grouped both of them and rotated the new piece to the right 90 degrees and placed the flat side of the half circle up against the inside of the handle and grouped it all together.

For the jaw there were way to many steps to list every single thing I did. So I'll just give the run down on what I did then get to the pic holder.

First I made 3 squares and measured them to rectangles being 7.05 W x 41.00 L and 11.30 in height. I curved all the corners with 5 specific sized MetaFillet holes to my liking and gave the rectangles a bit more slanted characteristic with some square holes. I had a duplicate of the cylinder hole I used to make the pin hole in the handle, so I used it to put one through to top of the jaw so that it can connect with everything, then made another cylinder/half circle combo piece for the other side of the spring to connect from the handle to the jaw giving the capo clamp like pressure now.

Next I felt like somethings missing, what can I do to make this special. Then It dawned on me that I should make a pic holder on the end. So for that I did a quick job since this was for a grade and had to be turned in soon. I measured a square to be 14.90 W x 20.25 L and 3.00 in height. Then I measured a round roof to be 14.80 W x 13.25 L and 6.00 in height. I aligned them and grouped them together to make sure it was a good fit, then un-grouped them for the time being. All that's left to do is to make the cut outs. I sat and thought about shapes that could resemble a guitar pic. It was hard to think of a idea but I figured it out. I measured a pic next to me and used the shape "wedge". I didn't just use the shape though. I had to use MetaFillets to make it curve like a pic does. I measured it out to be 14.60 W x 10.80 L and 1.35 for the height. I rotated is 22.5 degrees to the right (so the front downwards) and duplicated it to make 2 holes for pics. A trick I did was make the round roof a hole to see how far in the pic hole would go in and where it was at angle wise to make them both fit.

You are ready to print! It was fun to make and easy surprisingly. Hopefully this inspires you to make one. All you need besides the parts is a spring and you're good to go.