A solution to a rather specific problem I have, where our cat absolutely refuses to leave her pet bed at night when we need to move her to another room.

Because I'm not heartless and don't kick the cat out of the bed, before I would have to unscrew the bed with the cat inside so I could pick up the bed with the cat inside and move her that way, and it's not that easy to unscrew an M8 screw with a 12 pound cat on top, not to mention it probably makes her dizzy.

With this, I simply undo two latches and it frees the bed from the tower. I've also made sure that it's safe, I've put way more than 12 pounds of force on the print with the latch mechanism engaged and it securely holds me (and by extension, my cat when she jumps up.)

This uses two M8 threaded inserts to interface with the existing cat bed hardware, one with a male end and another with a female end. The parts I used were from McMaster:

303 Stainless Steel Tapered Heat-Set Inserts for Plastic, M8 x 1.25 mm Thread Size, 14.27 mm Installed Length: https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/130/3775/97163A159

Male Threaded Heat-Set Insert for Plastic, M8 x 1.25 mm Thread Size https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/130/4200/96975A122

Draw Latch, Screw on, 300 Series Stainless Steel, 2-5/16" Long x 15/16" Wide https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/130/3343/1590A43

as well as a few wood screws to secure the latches to the printed parts. (The heat set inserts are a tad tricky due to their size, but they eventually do set!)

I would strongly recommend threaded inserts or other metallic hardware for this instead of a 3D printed rod as a lot of mechanical stress will be on the threaded rods, and cat safety is a must!

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Bambulabs

Printer:

Bambu P1S

Rafts:

No

Supports:

No

Resolution:

0.20mm

Infill:

25%

Filament: Overture PETG White

Notes:

Printed with default "strong" profile (25% infill, 6 wall lines). Might be able to use less infill given the 6 wall lines if desired.

How I Designed This

Fusion 360, was relatively easy given I could just import parts from McMaster straight into the design.

I found after initial print and assembly that the latches as imported don't tightly lock, so I stacked 2 quarters on top of each other and verified that the additional height creates a much more snug latch, hence the 3.5mm additional height on the bottom.