095.2 – 90mm rod with M6 insert threads “elephant rod”

Part info

  • What: A rod with M6 insert threads on both sides. 
  • material: strong
  • measures:90mm high (fixed!), ⌀ ~35mm. The insert threads are 15mm deep in. There is an extra 25mm space for a bolt after the insert thread. So in total there is room for a 40mm M6 bolt (see sketch below) 

Sketch by the designer Parker Haynes

Tolerance

  • Size: The length is fixed at 90mm, but the ~35mm diameter is flexible within the standard tolerance 
  • Material: standard tolerance
  • Interchangeability: The “elephant rods” proved to be very useful. Several uses for them were added after their introduction. However, the elephant rods are quite thick and strong and require M6 nuts, so they use a lot of material. Not all applications require the rods to be so strong. So “weaker” twins were introduced (112.1-112.4) using M4 nuts. In some applications the elephant rods can be interchanged with these twins.

Get the part

 
Elephant Rod Making Box

Ikego has various parts in the system that are tubes or beams with internal threads on both sides (095._, 112._, 129._). There are different ways to make them. Some of them are documented here:

1 solid material

Designer Parker Haynes, who originally introduced this type of part into the system (via the Elephant Shelf) has shared a how-to for inserting screw-in nuts into solid wooden (or plastic) poles. See PDF here.

2 pipes with (3d printed) inserts

You can buy tubes put inserts into them. These can be made of solid material and can also be 3D printed. In the meantime, a small collection of directly printable inserts has been created and shared for various pipe diameters. Download STLs for them here:

(If the link does not work go here and search for “Elephant Rod Inserts”)

Remark on 3d printed inserts:

  • If the pipe is strong (e.g. aluminium) and you print the exact diameter, you may not need to glue or screw the insert in. You might get lucky and it will just stay in.
  • Most of the inserts shared work with a channel for a regular M6 nut. So the thread is metal. Usually there is also a “lock” that helps to keep the nut in place and avoid that it spins and break the plastic. Of course, this part needs to be printed with a strong infill, because the part is holding the nut in place, and if you’re going to put a lot of pressure on it to ensure a stable connection, the 3D printed walls need to be able to withstand that pressure. If the component is not strong enough, the M6 nut will break the walls and start to rotate inside the component.

Introduced by