Howdy, wonderful people!
Ever feel like your life is lacking both gothic splendour and solid geometry? I know I do! This stylish stellated dodecahedron is just the thing for addressing this, especially this time of year where star-oriented festive decor is in fashion.
So, silliness aside, what are the interesting design points on this one? Well, the real trick is how it all joins together. I wanted to avoid internal brackets on this one, since I'd already ...
2020-11-15 07:41:14 +0000 UTC
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If there's one thing I've spent a lot of time on in the year since I published the Resolute Box, it's printability. These days, I have a bunch of cheap printers using default slicing profiles purely to test the resilience of designs in the face of untuned print setups. I test print, find problems, and see if there's a way to design around them. But back when I design the original Resolute Box I was printing solely on very capable, well-tuned machines, printing slowly and car...
2020-11-06 11:53:29 +0000 UTC
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Second up in revised designs, we have the Skull Slide Top Box. The request here was to allow the box to be locked closed somehow, so I applied a mechanism that will be quite familiar now, but in a different way.
Yep, those screw closures! Except, all previous examples have had the threaded part split into two, and the ring has effectively clamped those two pieces together. Not so, t...
2020-11-06 11:52:04 +0000 UTC
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Hey there, wonderful people!
I often get requests to tweak designs, and those requests are often really useful or interesting. Today we'll have three updates to existing designs, two for changes in functionality, and one for a change in printability. These sorts of updates often don't rate actual posts, but in this case I thought I'd share some of the thought process around it. First up - lids for the Spin Receptacle! Two more posts to come shortly after :)
<...
2020-11-06 11:51:14 +0000 UTC
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That's right, wonderful people, another way to roll dice, this time with an even more gratuitously over-engineered, print-in-place, support-free mechanism!
Press the paddle at the back and the tray tilts forward, driven internally by a pair of geared wheels. Pinch the paddle back up against the upper handle and the tray returns to horizontal once more.
Now, the whole appeal o...
2020-11-01 15:46:06 +0000 UTC
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Howdy, wonderful people!
I do love dynamic things, whether it's moving gears, flowing water, or in this case, rolling dice. It's a dice tower! A modular one that comes apart, specifically. Let's look at the parts...
Let's start at the bottom. You'll need one of these parts, since it's where the dice are directed out of the tower.
On top of the bottom piece, w...
2020-10-30 16:00:58 +0000 UTC
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Have you ever tried printing a blade? Wait, no incriminating answers, please! I mean, some thing for stationery purposes, since we're looking at another component for the Regulation Caddy System. Specifically: a tape caddy!
Now, this thing works mostly quite well! The screw-in spool holder retains the spool and allows the tape to be pulled out and over the top. Angles are all arranged so there's plenty of room for a standard tape roll, but of course without...
2020-10-30 15:29:47 +0000 UTC
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Hey there, wonderful people!
It's the end of the month once more, and time for a few posts, some to tie up loose ends (like this one) and others with some entirely new stuff...
You probably saw this one coming! Yes, what caddy system is complete without somewhere to store post-it notes? This tray has exactly the same outer dimensions as the original 2x2 drawer-and-tray model, but is geared towards providing a home to your sticky note pads!
2020-10-30 15:17:08 +0000 UTC
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Howdy, wonderful people!
Are you spinning your single-axis rotating models and wishing there were more degrees of freedom? If so, this is the model for you! Here we have a spherical bowl that can rotate freely within a stand. The stand features four threaded holes, too, into which bolts can be inserted to tighten the assembly in a given orientation, but that's entirely optional.
Originally, this was a tiny, tiny model that would fit into the palm of one ha...
2020-10-22 12:20:32 +0000 UTC
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That's right, by popular request I finally got a video done demonstrating how the screw thread connectors work in things like the Breezy Pi Case and the Fixer Jar. You'll find the video on youtube here:
https://youtu.be/tr2YuelgF-8
Hopefully that gives some insight into how I tend to construct those connectors for support-free printing - hit me up in the comments here if I missed anything, or if anything ne...
2020-10-15 16:38:44 +0000 UTC
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You can never have too much SD card storage!
Hi there, ever-supportive, wonderful people! Yes, it's a modified version of the 1x1 caddy that has slots for SD cards! The fun part of this design was keeping it looking consistent with the existing open-topped caddy designs by making sure the top of the insert was square, and not a trimmed-down rectangular thing.
When I first developed this idea, the SD slots were in the inner, not the outer part, and the inner was ...
2020-10-08 08:30:08 +0000 UTC
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Howdy, wonderful people!
Hooray for gratuitous cogs and moving parts! :D
So, this is where that caddy with the hinged lid ended up! As expected, we have two cogs rather than three, and you'll notice they're big now, too! As large as possible within the confines of the lid, in fact. Apart from the fact that it looks cooler that way, it means the cogs turn more easily, with less unwanted tilting.
2020-10-07 23:11:44 +0000 UTC
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Howdy, wonderful people!
Making things complicated is great fun, but it isn't always easy...
It's that time again - let's look at things that didn't turn out quite as planned this month!
First up, that thing pictured above! It's a phone stand, believe it or not, and an intentionally convoluted one. All those moving parts are intended to drive a simple angle adjustment. Two sets of planetary gears, sides that fold together, captured bolts and pins for...
2020-09-30 15:26:50 +0000 UTC
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Drawers, drawers, drawers! But first, names!
Welcome back to caddy land, wonderful people. So, a few days back I posted up the first round of Regulation Caddy designs, which included two sizes: 1x1 and 1x2. Now, this was not the best naming, because the latter was not twice the size of the former, it was 1.5 times the size. So, I've added an actual 1x2 version:
It'...
2020-09-30 15:24:30 +0000 UTC
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Hey there, wonderful people!
I'll often design in ways that distract from the fact that something is 3D printed, but not this time! This desk organiser is made to be noticed and questioned! Where did that come from? Why is it so complicated and why does it need bolts and such to hold parts together...
Yes indeed, this is a modular arrangement, and the clamping mechanism to hold parts together is intentionally intricate, with two separate brackets, a threade...
2020-09-25 15:26:21 +0000 UTC
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Hey there, wonderful people!
I got half way through explaining why this wouldn't work, and then realised that I could indeed make it work! :D
This design may well look familiar! Yep, the Colossus Vault and the Vault Box are the ancestors of this, but they differ in a key way. You see, the Vault Box has a lid separate to the box itself, specifically so that the box can have a flat base. The Colossus Vault, on the other hand, has a hinged lid, but prints upside-dow...
2020-09-17 15:41:32 +0000 UTC
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Howdy, wonderful people!
Remember the Branch Tube? Well, it was pointed out that it could be really useful to have segments with closed bases that could still screw together, allowing a series of individual chambers to form a tube. The existing base would of course allow segments to be closed off, but there was no way to then attach further elements. Until now!
You've pr...
2020-09-17 15:41:25 +0000 UTC
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Howdy, wonderful people!
This was another concept that bounced around for ages before finally taking form - basically a rack-and-pinion style guide rail. The paired cogs on the lid mesh into rack gears that are inset into the box body. Really, though, I'm just a sucker for gratuitous cogs turning around :D
The box printed in the photos here is a fairly short one, but the dropbox folder contains four different heights - see below for dimensions.
2020-09-10 13:56:39 +0000 UTC
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Howdy, wonderful people!
Custom clamshell case requests are open! :D
You'd think I would already have all the boxes I need, right? :P I have a vague list of things to create cases for, especially things like screwdriver bits and small tools that currently rattle around in the bottom of drawers. However, I'll gladly procrastinate from measuring such things up and take requests for new clamshell case models!
First, what are the Clamshell Ca...
2020-09-03 12:58:41 +0000 UTC
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Hey there, wonderful people! Another month has sprinted by already in a blur of extruded plastic! So, let's look at some stuff that didn't quite work out.
Fixer Jar - Secret Hinged Door!
First up, that hidden door, above! It works perfectly, prints in place, and really isn't obvious when looking at the model. The downside is that it doesn't hinge up quite as far as I'd like. It's usable, and the model is up on dropbox for anyone who's...
2020-09-02 08:35:11 +0000 UTC
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Howdy, wonderful people!
Let's talk history....
Sometimes I end up making really practical designs. I love my ridiculous adventures in gears and articulated lids, but I can't deny that using 3D printers for actual practical purposes is pretty great, too. Of course, sometimes the ridiculous projects, like print-in-place hinged lids, get refined away from their tricky roots and end up as elements of printable, robust designs.
And, that's the path t...
2020-08-26 15:51:14 +0000 UTC
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Howdy, wonderful people!
I've bundled a bunch of things into this single post, just for a change :) Hmm, maybe some contents are in order:
> New Fixer Jar parts - a hidden drawer, false bottom and an interior lid.
> Hinged hatch for the Archimedean Ball
> A rugged case for Wacom pens
> Arduino Mega and Uno enclosures.
Let's get to it!
NEW FIXER JAR PARTS!
Secret compartments are great, and I really d...
2020-08-19 14:21:42 +0000 UTC
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Hey there, wonderful people!
Yep, it's another ridiculously convoluted one! This print-in-place cog-driven box features two big sort-of-herringbone sprockets, an oddly-curved lid and a design that makes me squint and turn my head sideways trying to remember which bits go where. Actually, the first thing I did when pulling the final version off the printer was to try to open it from the wrong side :)
2020-08-14 14:17:36 +0000 UTC
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Hi, wonderful people! :D
It's no surprise to anyone that I like assemblies! This box is made up of an arbitrary number of segments attached to each other via guiding elements on the top and bottom of each segment, and via big knurled screw retainers that hold the layers together.
Oh, and the lid is a big screw-out thing, too!
The idea behind this one was to allow the box to be...
2020-08-07 17:22:26 +0000 UTC
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I have to admit I'd forgotten there was even an A-footprint version of the Raspberry Pi series of boards! The B version is so incredibly common, after all. But the A is particularly useful for for 3D printing, since it's everything one needs for Octoprint. So, here's a case!
I've intentionally adapted the original Pi3B case (though with a bunch of modifications) rather than th...
2020-08-07 17:22:20 +0000 UTC
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Hey there, wonderful people!
It's spam time again! Early on, I did try consolidating things into individual posts, but it made it too easy to miss releases, so spam it is! I often have a couple of things reaching completion at the same time, mostly because that's how test printing works out - things printing in parallel overnight or during the day end up kind of synchronised that way.
But on to the model: it's the 24AA box reworked to hold 12 AA batteries and 15 AAA ba...
2020-08-07 17:22:14 +0000 UTC
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Actually, it's a trucated icosidodecahedron, but I opted for a more poetic and rather loose choice of name instead. It's huge!
Hey there, wonderful people! One last one before the clock ticks over from the 31st to the 1st, and it's a big polyhedron. I'm not sure how these things keep getting bigger and bigger, but here we are! I remember not long ago being concerned that the truncated icosahedron was too big. And the rhombic triacontahedron. Family fa...
2020-07-31 13:56:08 +0000 UTC
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Howdy, wonderful people!
Okay, so I'm being a bit melodramatic with the word disaster, but I did indeed have a design that fell by the wayside in favour of a more robust and practical solution. And that solution is the one you see here, for storing AA batteries.
This one's called the 24AA Battery Crate, and as you might guess, it holds 24 AA-sized batteries. And it's a print-in-place design with a hinged lid with a ninety-degree angle in it. As usual, no supports...
2020-07-31 05:25:18 +0000 UTC
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Howdy, wonderful people!
Well, it's the end of the month already, and that means trying to get ongoing projects wrapped up wherever possible. There's still stuff on the Pi case to-do list, but here are a bunch of things that should help with camera positioning, and it includes an adaptor to work with the Breezy and Hinged cases!
Let's take a look...
Swivel Connectors
2020-07-31 04:16:41 +0000 UTC
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I hadn't even heard of rhombic triacontahedra before a comment on the Cuboctahedron model sparked my interest! It's a polyhedron made up entirely of identical rhombus faces, and those faces are in fact golden rhombi! Nerd out on polyhedra on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhombic_triacontahedron
For our purposes, all you need to know, is this:
...
2020-07-26 16:17:50 +0000 UTC
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