Every printer, filament and slicer profile prints holes a little differently. The defaults work on most well-tuned machines, but a test coupon — one small piece — tells you for sure. It costs one export and a few grams of filament, and it can save kilograms.
Make a test coupon
Pick the variant that matches what you plan to build.
Hole fit (every tier)
- Start a Shaped panels project and reduce it to one square tile with an 80–100 mm edge, kind Pegboard.
- Set your bed, pegboard type, board thickness and hole clearance exactly as you plan to use them.
- Export and import into your slicer. You only need the panel: delete the frame to save time.
- Print with the settings you will use for the real board.
Hole fit, mounts and joints (Maker and above)
- Start an Infinite pegboard, set Fit to Custom and enter a board slightly wider than your bed’s usable width and about 120 mm tall — for a 256 mm bed, 300 × 120 mm. The app slices it into two pieces with one seam.
- Choose your joint method, pegboard type and standoff.
- Export and print both pieces, the spline strip and a cap. You now have holes, a seam, a joint, a mount and a separator to test.
What to check
- Hooks and clips go in by hand, seat fully and don’t wobble. Test several holes, near the edges and in the middle.
- Capsule slots measure close to 5.0 mm wide with calipers. Clips should click in and stay put.
- Round holes measure close to their nominal size: 7.1 mm (US 1/4″), 4.8 mm (US 1/8″), 5.0 mm (EU 5/25).
- The piece lies flat on a table, without rocking.
- The front face is clean: no pinched hole edges, no gaps between lines.
- Joints: the spline strip drops into its recess with light pressure; puzzle tabs press together by hand, snugly.
- Caps press into the mount counterbore and stay flush.
- Inlays are fully opaque — the base colour doesn’t shine through.
Adjust and repeat
| Symptom | Setting | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Accessory clips hard to press into the accessory, or loose in it | Clip fit, in the accessory configurator | Loose if too hard, Tight if loose; reprint what the configurator names |
| Hooks or clips too tight in the board’s holes | Hole clearance | +0.1 mm |
| Clips loose in the board, accessories wobble | Hole clearance | −0.1 mm; keep it at 0 or more if you hang accessories made for a built-in pegboard type (below 0, enter the holes on a Custom type) |
| Capsule slot wider than 5.4 mm | Hole clearance | Lower it: clips need grip |
| Pinched hole edges on the front | Front chamfer, or slicer elephant foot compensation | Chamfer 0.8–1 mm, or compensation 0.1–0.2 mm |
| Spline strip too tight or too loose | Joint clearance | ±0.05 mm |
| Puzzle tabs won’t close | Joint clearance | +0.05 mm |
| Panel doesn’t drop into its frame | Frame clearance | +0.1 mm |
| Cap loose in the counterbore | — | A drop of glue; the next print, check your flow rate |
| Base colour shows through an inlay | Inlay depth | 0.8 mm (four 0.2 mm layers) |
Change one setting at a time, by the smallest step, and print the coupon again. Two rounds are usually enough.
Slicer calibration first
Pegboard settings can’t fix a printer that is out of tune. If your coupon is off by more than a few tenths, check these slicer calibrations first:
- Flow rate / extrusion multiplier — overextrusion shrinks every hole.
- First-layer height — too low squashes the front face and closes hole edges.
- Elephant foot compensation — for pinched first-layer edges.
Prefer Pegboard Maker’s clearance over the slicer’s X-Y hole compensation: the slicer setting changes every hole in the print, including screw and dowel holes, while clearance only touches pegboard holes.