The Failures of February! :)

 Hey there, wonderful people!  It's time to reflect on the missteps and disasters behind the scenes for February!  

I was thinking ahead to this post the entire time I was working on the Linkage Crate, and I very much expected it would be front and centre as the design that didn't make it.  It's hard to express the relief that came with finally solving the fragility issues that left my workbench awash with broken plastic struts...

But let's step back earlier in the story, because there was a design that never even made it to the test print stage that was the... let's call it the ancestor of the linkage crate.

You're probably thinking that that looks absolutely nothing like the linkage crate, and you'd be correct in that thought.  This odd looking thing started to get way too complicated and I decided that friction between parts was becoming too likely, so I put it aside.  But the goal of this design, not that you can really tell, was to drive the lid opening from another element, and that idea became the linkage crate.

Some designs do end up technically successful, but just don't quite make me happy in pure aesthetics.  The mechanical rook box had an early version that was like that, and here it is:

The organic petal shapes didn't really mesh visually with the mechanical elements for me, so I reworked it until I was much happier.  I still kinda like that design, but I like the final version better.  I've uploaded this early design to Dropbox, though, if you're curious enough to check it out!  It's under ZZZ Experiments.

While you're there, you might notice another design called Antichomp Box.  That's the one at the top of this post!

This one was an attempt to design a box that worked liked the Chomper Box, but with a right-way-up print orientation.  It worked out reasonably well but it was just a bit uninspired, and I decided not to keep going with the fine tuning the lid mechanism probably needs :)

So, yes, that's in the ZZZ Experiments folder, too!

Everything else kinda worked out (eventually)!

I really like looking back over these things, especially when it reminds me of ideas I can still bring to bear on other designs.  I'd like to thing that most of what I end up posting is pretty polished, but that's really only because the bad decisions and missteps get hidden away.

And, as always, I am so thankful and appreciative of all your support on this journey ❤😍.  I truly wouldn't have persevered with half of the designs that I've published if not for the abundance of encouragement and appreciation that you provide on an ongoing basis.  Oh, and I looove seeing photos (and videos, especially with googly eyes) of your prints, so keep them coming!

Let's see what March brings!

xoxo

Sven / Clockspring3D