Introduction

Oftentimes, tables and desks are the wrong height for the person sitting at them, and nearly always, that height is too low. This can be very uncomfortable, especially when working (or studying!) for long periods, causing back problems and postural issues. While you can buy various solutions for this problem, they are expensive, insufficiently-adjustable, not always available, or some combination of the above. This is especially a problem for people who are still growing, such as children or young adults who go to school.

This design allows you to fix this problem with a 3D printer, at relatively low cost (a few hundred grams of filament and some print time), and can be used for any table or desk with cylindrical (or tapered cylindrical) legs by adjusting some parameters. It is also open source, and requires no proprietary software (or knowledge of CAD) to modify for your needs. They also make table legs look like the feet of an animal with hooves, which is both cute and interesting (and how they got their name).

How to print this

You need to use a creep-resistant material, so PLA is not suitable. PETG and ABS (or ASA) are both suitable; CF infill can help as well, but isn't necessary. TPU lacks the necessary rigidity and shouldn't be used either. You can use stronger materials if you want, but that's probably unnecessary as well.

The model should be printed using at least 3 perimeters, and at least 15% infill. You can add more perimeters and more infill (though anything over 40% probably won't make any difference, and will increase material use significantly), depending on the weight of the table. We recommend an isotropic infill: if you don't know what to use, cubic is the one we suggest. Make sure you use a layer height that's no greater than half of your nozzle diameter (so no more than 0.2 for a 0.4mm nozzle). You can use bigger nozzles if you like, but if you do, ensure you adjust the ‘layer height’ parameter when you generate the model.

Adjusting the model for your use

The provided source (as required by the license) is parametric, and can be adjusted by opening it in FreeCAD. Version 0.22.0dev was used to make it: since this will become the 1.0 version, it should work with anything later. It may work with 0.21, but we haven't tested it.

To adjust the parameters, go to the ‘Parameters’ spreadsheet, then modify the values there according to your needs. Once you have what you want, select the ‘hoof’ model in the side panel, and go to ‘File → Export’, choosing whichever format you want. We recommend STEP if you can, as this won't have resolution issues as STL can have.

Because many tables have tapered legs, the part where the legs insert into the hoof has two diameters, allowing you to choose any taper that suits your table. We recommend printing just the top part as a test to make sure your legs fit snugly before printing the whole model.

The adjustable parameters provided are:

• The diameter of the bottom of the hoof, which determines the overall part size.
• The lift height, which is how much you want to elevate the table by.
• The depth to which the legs insert into the hoof. We recommend not making this lower than 20mm, but you can increase it if you want more engagement.
• A bottom and top diameter for the part the legs insert into.
• A diameter for the top of the part, to give it its hoof-like shape.
• The layer height (to ensure proper fillet and chamfer sizing).

Some of these parameters have codependencies, so ensure that any model you generate doesn't end up having walls that are too thin. If in doubt, go bigger on the bottom and top diameters.

Provided files

We provide both STL and STEP files for an example table hoof: you can see it in the picture. The parameters used to generate it were:

• Bottom diameter: 80mm
• Lift height: 40mm
• Leg insert depth: 20mm
• Leg insert bottom diameter: 38mm
• Leg insert top diameter: 44mm
• Leg insert outer diameter: 60mm
• Layer height: 0.2mm

We also provide the FreeCAD source for the part, as required by the license.