clockspring3D

Counterfold Case

Howdy, wonderful people!

Why have one hinge on a lid when you can have six, right?!

Some years ago I played around with different approaches to a geometric mechanical model known broadly as a kaleidocycle, where a set of rigid elements connected by normal, single-axis hinges was able to endlessly turn inside-out. Such a fascinating mechanism, and I had long wondered if it would be possible to turn it into some kind of container. What if we just took a basic kaleidocycle model ...

The Scanline Classic (for EL wire!)

Ahoy-hoy, wonderful people!

Yes, it's an old-timey TV that incorporates EL wire to give that classic cathode ray scan line feel! And it's another print made up of a multitude of parts :D

You'll notice that the EL wire is wrapped around a caddy that keeps thing nice and neat! It's really just a shape that fits behind the curved glass panel and which incorporates channels for 2.3mm EL wire.

2025-06-26 20:18:05 +0000 UTC View Post

Echoform Vase

Hi there, wonderful people!

Some concepts just refuse to let go until they turn into some kind of reality, and this is one of those. I was contemplating some kind of classic vase design, but with things arranged around it that seemingly contravened the basic laws of vase mode printing, and that turned into "what if there were two vases!", and apparently some walls as well.

And so here we are! This vase mode print incorporates two vases in front of two contrasting walled...

Quilted Case

Howdy, wonderful people!

Yes, it's a padded, fabric-covered, 3D printed box! I had modelled hard plastic versions of upholstered things before, so it's a logical progression to actually add padding and fabric, right?!

Let's have a look at how this is constructed. The panels on the box are prepared independently and bolted into place once they're ready. There are a bunch of almost-holes...

Resistor Boxes

Hi there, wonderful people!

As you well know, I love closure and latching mechanisms! I've been exploring what are effectively printed springs lately, and it occurred to me that I could use a sprung stopper as a means of keeping something firmly closed.

In the photos you'll see there's a wedge-shaped tab tucked away on the inside of the lid, and that has enough clearance to move entirely...

Blacksmith's Pail (no multimaterial required!)

Howdy, wonderful people!

Multimaterial printing is great, but it really does have some downsides. Excessive extra print time and unreasonable material waste are realities that make us question whether the benefits are worth it. But contrast that with simple filament swaps at specific layers - in that case there's no waste and no time overhead. The downside, though, is that everything on a given layer has to be the same colour.

So, with this bucket I decided I was going to work out...

Hex Tile Tub for Ikea Pegboards

Howdy, wonderful people!

Pegboards are such useful things, but I noticed a distinct lack of hexagonal tubs that could be tiled across them and had to set out to fix that!

As you probably noticed from the title and the photos, we're specifically talking about Ikea Skadis pegboards here, which have tremendous advantages when it comes to printed attachment hardware, and for which there's already abundant support. You can even print your own pegboard! I'm not sure that's actually che...

Videotape Vault (and fancy slip cases!)

Howdy, wonderful people!

Some might say that VHS tapes are distant enough in the past now to be cool again, but I say they never stopped being cool to begin with! While those magnetic tapes may have faded from relevance for media distribution they remain an unmistakable icon of the cultural landscape. So, it seems obvious that life would be improved if we could adapt that retro styling and get some printed videotape coolness.

VHS tapes have some obvious features, like the labels a...

Scrollform Cylinder

Howdy, wonderful people!

Well, where do I start on this one?! As you've no doubt already noticed, it's a busy, detailed looking thing, and that was ultimately the point of it. I wanted a design that could use filament swapping to create graphic shapes, and thus get a complicated multimaterial look without any more complexity than a simple change of filament during the print. Well, several changes of filament, most likely! As you'd imagine, the first idea for this concept was based aroun...

Spiral Sovereign Crown

Howdy, wonderful people!

Crown yourself monarch of wherever you happen to be with this convenient vase mode print! Yep, this was another challenge to myself to see if I could strictly abide by the rules of vase mode design but still design something evocative of regal headwear.

Now, you'll probably want to print this one with no bottom layers, which means the first layer will simply be a ...

Secret Spray Stash

Hi hi, wonderful people!

I've mentioned many times how much I love finding the little things that give something its identity, and make it immediately recognisable as itself. And this time that has been applied to aerosol cans! It turns out there are standards for the shape of these things, so it wasn't exactly a huge shock when getting the angles and dimensions right made the can look quite convincing. What was more amusing, though was what a difference it made to add a really cliched ...

Extraplanetary Geared Stand

Hey there, wonderful people!

Planetary gears are just the best! As a fan of making things overly complicated, it's hard to find a mechanism that looks more cool and mechanical than that. And the Planetary Phone Stand was always a favourite design, but it certainly has limitations. Most obviously, in the years since that was designed, phones have become much, much larger! But there are other things that could bear improvement, too, like the adjustment bolt that was a bit fiddly and break...

Springlatch Box

Howdy, wonderful people!

I do love a nice latching mechanism! I could never get tired of exploring different ways to keep lids closed! But a big part of the appeal isn't so much the effectiveness of the latch (they're all generally pretty good, after all) but the tactile experience of closing and opening the thing. This one has a nice, satisfying click when the latch snaps into place, and in fact the working name for it was something like "Clickety Box". I wasn't convinced that I hadn't...

Disengagement Canister

Howdy, wonderful people!

There's something so satisfying about twist-locking containers, whether it's a fancy magnetic latch setup or a traditional screw thread. However, there's also something quite nice about containers where the lid remains attached when the thing is open, and those two concepts don't mesh together easily. Of course, I've put some together in the past, where a twist-lock lid hinges away from the body, but you'll notice that they all have at least three pieces since t...

Pennant Column Vase

The elements of a design that give something it's something-ness... it's identity that makes it recognisable as the thing that it is... is something that is a constant point of interest when putting together designs that are supposed to give the impression of something, and this time I was contemplating things that ripple in the breeze.

However, I was also contemplating the constraints of vase mode, so that meant anything that was giving the impression of flapping around would also need...

Articulated Bucket Loader

Chunky print-in-place wheels are fun! But that's not what drove (har har) this model - it was, as you probably guessed, the bucket. The wheel part is trivial in the scheme of things, but keeping the bucket viably printable without it being high risk of unbalancing and coming off the bed was most certainly a challenge!

The axis around which the bucket rotates is the key piece here - it bears the...

Scaffold Tub

Ah, I do love a nice industrial motif, and what is more industrial than big, exposed threads? This oversized tub rests on three hinged tripodian struts, and the aforementioned screw threads serve to extend those struts for extra coolness points. You can also just extend two of the struts and fold the shorter leg inwards in for a more... dynamic appearance!

You'll notice that the struts are quit...

Triple Axis Augmented Crate

Hi, wonderful people!

Yay, complicated motion! Why have one hinge point for a lid when you can have three, right?! But seriously, this ridiculously complicated motion structure does achieve something significant - it allow the lid to pivot over the back of the box and end up flat against the back, vertically. And more importantly it's mesmerising!

It's perhaps surprising, though that desi...

Skull Tessellation Box

Hi, wonderful people!

I do love a good tessellation! Here we have a set of expressive skull boxes that neatly fit into each other to efficiently tile two-dimensional space!

It won't surprise you to know that the vast majority of the time on this project went into working out how to shape a stylised skull form so that it would tile a plane, and then tweaking it so that it had the right kind of feel for what I was trying to do! Naturally, the geometry is effectively a hexagon, since...

Hidey-Hole Doorstop (for TPU or similar)

Sometimes 3D printing can actually be quite practical! I needed a couple of door stops, the rubbery sort that you often find on doors that open into a tiled wall. I could perhaps have gone to a local hardware store, but I did have some TPU lying around, and I had already got caught up with the idea that perhaps you could store very small valuables in a fiendishly clever doorstop design!

I'm sure I was far from the first person to think of such a thing, of course - I'd noticed that you c...

Torus Weave Tub (vase mode!)

Ahoy-hoy, vase mode fans!

I was, of course, trying to design something entirely different when I got the inspiration for this one. That is often how it goes, but it's invariably a good idea to run with it and see where it might lead!

I had been making a bowl design that did share an element with this tub - curvy elements that emerge from and disappear into each other. But I shifted from the kind of organic scaling-and-squishing that I'd been exploring and instead started arranging...