# A Skadis pegboard hook that actually clips in, not just squeezes

The real IKEA Skadis peg geometry (5mm hole, 40mm pitch), and the print clearance that clips a printed hook in firmly without snapping the peg.

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Most printed Skadis hooks fail in one of two ways: the peg is a hair too fat and you
crack it forcing it into the hole, or it is too thin and the hook wobbles and pops out
the first time you lift a tool off it. Both failures come from the same mistake, guessing
the peg size instead of building it from the board's actual hole.

This post covers the two numbers that define a Skadis peg, and the clearance value that
turns a guess into a peg sized to clip in and stay in.

## The Skadis hole is 5mm, and pegs are spaced 40mm apart

IKEA's Skadis pegboard is a fixed standard, not something you measure per-board. Every
round hole in the panel is a nominal 5mm diameter, and a two-peg hook (the sturdy way to
hang anything with real weight on it) uses pegs 40mm apart horizontally so each peg lands
in its own hole rather than sharing one. The board itself is about 5mm thick, which
matters for how deep the peg needs to reach before its retaining barb clears the back
face and can catch.

None of that is a guess. It is baked directly into Meshra's Skadis hook connector as
fixed geometry, exactly like it is baked into the real board: the 5mm hole and 40mm pitch
never move, because the pegboard does not move. What does change, and what determines
whether the hook clips in cleanly or fights you, is the peg diameter relative to that
fixed 5mm hole.

## Sizing the peg: clearance, not a guess

A peg modeled at exactly 5mm to match a 5mm hole will not go in. FDM printing rounds
corners and slightly over-extrudes on tight curves, so circular holes print a touch
undersized and round pegs print a touch oversized, the same effect covered in more depth
in [our post on 3D printing tolerances](/blog/3d-printing-tolerances-parts-that-fit). A
Skadis peg needs the same clearance math as any other press fit, just applied to a hole
whose size you already know for certain.

Meshra's Skadis connector derives the peg from the fixed hole minus a clearance value you
control with the same snug, normal, or loose fit slider used across every [Fit
Machine](/fit) connector:

| Fit | Clearance per side | Resulting peg diameter |
|---|---|---|
| Snug | 0.10mm | 4.80mm |
| Normal | 0.25mm | 4.50mm |
| Loose | 0.50mm | 4.00mm |

Snug gives you the firmest hold for something that takes real load, like a hammer or a
drill, because the peg is closest to the true hole size and grips the walls of the hole on
the way in. Loose is worth reaching for on a printer that already runs a little tight
(check with a test peg first if you are not sure), or for a hook you expect to pull in and
out of the board often, since a 4.0mm peg drops into a printed 5mm hole with much less
resistance than a 4.8mm one. What you should not do is model the peg at the full 5mm and
hope: that is the version that either will not seat at all or splits the moment you push
it home.

<TryMeshra />

## Building the hook around your item, not the board

The board side of a Skadis hook is fixed, but the front side, the part that actually
cradles whatever you are hanging, is entirely about what you measure. Meshra's connector
takes two more inputs beyond the fit clearance: the diameter or width of the item the hook
needs to hold, from an 8mm cable up to a 120mm handle, and how far the hook reaches out
from the board face, from 8mm for something that sits flush to 90mm for a deep tool. Both
flow straight into the same CadQuery build as named parameters, so if your first print's
cradle is a little too snug for the actual screwdriver handle you're hanging, you open the
parameter drawer and widen the item size, not redesign the hook from scratch. The full
mechanics of that slider-driven re-run are covered in [designing a wall bracket that
actually fits](/blog/design-a-wall-bracket-that-fits), which walks through the same pattern
for a different mounting problem.

## Where to start

Open the [Skadis hook page in the Fit Machine](/fit/skadis-hook), enter the item you want
to hang and pick a fit level, and you get a two-peg hook sized to the real board geometry
in seconds, no AI call and free on every plan. If you want to hand-tune anything past what
the form exposes, the result lands in the builder with a full parameter drawer, including
the peg clearance itself, so a test fit that comes out a shade too tight is a slider drag
away from right.