clockspring3D

Mechano-Bat Box

Added 2025-10-29 17:03:33 +0000 UTC

Howdy, wonderful people!

Bats usually hang upside-down, rather than standing up, but maybe they would stand more if they had big, chunky boots like this bat does!

Another significant difference between this bat and regular ones is the number of intermeshed gears it possesses. The wings and neck drive each other so that raising the head opens the wings and provides access to the container within.

The gears were not the complex part of this design, however. A far more complicated question was how to shape and angle the wings so that they would spread out in a satisfying way but still close effectively and fold over each other. Even more importantly, it couldn't be overly wide when printed with wings open or else it wouldn't fit on a typical printer. So, I folded paper, chopped up test prints, and generally invoked much trial and error. And from that I made decisions on head/wing relative angles and decided that the wings would have a fold half-way through to keep the wingtips from venturing too far out of the printable area :)

Optional Magnets

If you'd like the wings to stay more firmly closed you may add a pair of 6x3mm cylindrical magnets to each wing/body interface. So, that's 4 magnets in total.

Print Description

This is an articulated design, so take care that the first layer is nice and neat, and ensure there are no print issues like stringing or overextrusion that might fuse moving parts together.

Print Dimensions

The Mechano-Bat Box occupies 145mm x 188mm on the print bed and is 51mm tall.

Supports Needed?

Not at all! Designed for straightforward printing!

Scalability

While this model was not designed for resizing it should be possible to scale it up or down (as long as you don't expect the magnets to fit anymore :)

Print Orientation

The Mechano-Bat Box prints on its back with wings open. The eyes print upside-down.