095.4 – 300mm rod with M6 insert threads “elephant rod”

Use cases

Part info

What: A rod with M6 insert threads on both sides.
material: strong
measures: 300mm 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 part designer Parker Haynes

Tolerance

Size: The length is fixed at 300mm, 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

BUY
Globally ↓
- Available as local make.
- From Max of Materialogic (made on demand, shipping from Germany)
Locally ↓
- None so far
- Want to make and sell this part? Add your store
Make:
- Option 1: The designer Parker Haynes shared instructions for one possible way to make this part. Find the instructions in the original post by the designer or click to download a PDF.
- Option 2: described below ↓

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:

Download inserts

(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.