clockspring3D

Swingbucket! I finally found a use for that swivel joint :D

Much as I like that simple cone-based hinge design, it's not always appropriate.  If we used that for this handle we'd quickly find that the flexibility of plastic would be our downfall.  The handle would just pop straight off.  I've had designs fall prey to that even without having such long, flexible parts, so this would have no hope.

So, instead, each side is hinged in a way that is self-contained and does not rely on the other side being in place.  It's actually ...

Hearts and hinges! And a Fusion 360 video!

3D printers bring love every day of the year, not just on Valentine's Day, but it was good inspiration for a tutorial project!  After recording that video on hinge design in Tinkercad I had a couple of requests to do the same thing in Fusion 360, and so here we are!

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l8lXlpvcQ0 

 The video is about half taken up with creating the box sha...

Planetary Kaleidocycle!

I just had to make another one of these things, because they're just so cool!  But this time, it's an assembly.  Okay, it's an assembly of print-in-place gears :P  You'll recognise this basic structure from the experiment I posted recently, but now the "hinges" move by rotating a planetary gear.  I love those things, they're just so much fun.  Actually, I have a box experiment that uses that kind of gear sitting there waiting to be printed... but I digress!

So! ...

Verticality Box

It's a box!  I really do love designing new boxes and containers.  This one is old school, no print-in-place fanciness.  So, what do I like about these things?  Well, boxes are a good avenue for exploring things like texture (I love the feeling of those ridges running vertically down the sides) and proportions (there's something about the relative thickness of those walls to the box dimensions).  

2020-01-29 17:51:37 +0000 UTC View Post

2020 Is Going Pretty Well So Far :D

Hey there, wonderful supporters!  It's already the end of January, somehow.  One good thing about posting stuff online is that when I wonder where the time went, I have a list!  But the funny thing is that I find all these other things lying around that I completely forgot about.  Things half-designed, shelved, abandoned, or just whipped up quickly for some need and never actually photographed or posted.  And that's what this post is about!

I'll also talk about ...

A Stronger Print-in-Place Clamp!

I've designed a couple of print-in-place clamps in the last few weeks, and the motivations have been different each time.  

The first one ( https://www.patreon.com/posts/exclusive-print-32421236 ) was driven by a desire to make an interesting, complex hinged clamp that was entirely print in place.

The second one ( 2020-01-26 11:35:17 +0000 UTC View Post

So, What's a Kaleidocycle?!

I should be sleeping, but I couldn't resist waiting for this final version print to finish - and it works!  It's aliiiiiive!  Well, not quite, but you'll have to excuse me if I'm super excited about this one - it's been a long road and for most of it I wasn't sure I'd get to a workable end.

So, what is this thing?

Well, it's kind of a ring you can turn inside-out continuously, despite the fact that it merely has a bunch of regular hinges between the parts.  They're ...

Video: Making Hinges in Tinkercad!

Hi, wonderful people! By request, I've made a video on building simple print-in-place hinges in Tinkercad! You can find it on YouTube here:
https://youtu.be/XcRjMREj9-Y

Also, Creative Printer supporters will find the model in Dropbox, but it's a just silly technical demo, and I'm not sure you actually want to print that 😁

Overcurve Box!

So, you may ask, how does this one work?  Yet another idea that took a while from concept to fruition, the lid on this one moves in two ways!  Let's look at it when it's closed:

So, the lid swings around that triangular point, and also slides up and down.  That's the reason for the curved lid, actually - it means the box can be wider, but the lid can still swing over the top. &nb...

Discord is ready!

We now have Discord for messaging!  This should hopefully be an improvement on discussions via Instagram, Twitter, MMF, and wherever else, especially since we're in a multitude of time zones, and it's easy to lose track of things in the onslaught of social media content!

The discord currently only has one single channel, but I'll build that out over time as seems appropriate.

I've put the discord invitation link in the same post that contains the Dropbox link, so that they're...

Flame Facet Vase

I popped this one up for free on MyMiniFactory just earlier, but I've also put it into the dropbox folder for those of you who find that more convenient.  

Yep, vase mode!  I love vase mode, and I'm planning to spend a bit of time soon on getting more creative and experimental with it.  This model was an interesting one to develop, because those insets shallow the angles of the print.  If the angles are too shallow, the lines don't sit on top of each other, and thing...

Double-width panels for the bolted box!

Thank you all so much for the feedback on the bolted box!  As popularly requested, we now have some larger panels.  These are twice the regular width (plus an allowance for print tolerance), and come in two versions - with and without the middle holes.  

Let me see, what's next on the to-do list for the bolted box...

- Connectors with different angles

- Equilateral tr...

Bigger and Clamp-ier!

I started out intending to design a carabiner, and ended up with a C-clamp.  It's the oldest tale, right?  I was working with ovals, rectangles, hinges and screw closures, and suddenly realised I was basically half-way to a clamp.

Why another print-in-place clamp, though, when I'd made that other print-in-place clamp?  Well, apart from the fact that this was a completely different style, which has its own appeal from a design point of view, this one can be printed much la...

Feel the Tension!

I know a couple of knots. I'm a climber, so I know my figure-eights and my clove hitch. I learned girth hitches with rubber bands as a kid, even if I didn't know the name at the time. But that's about it. Knots are really interesting things, but I can't say I ever remember them when I need them.

Like, for example, when I'm trying to string up a rudimentary washing line.


I mention that be...

Mini Hardbox: rethinking an old favourite

Sometimes I make stuff that I actually use.  While I love pushing 3D printing as a creative pursuit it really can have practical uses, too!  I guess all boxes have potential utility, but these boxes are ones I use every day.

I'm a motorcyclist, and I often start wear earplugs to cut road noise.  Those earplugs needed something to keep them safe and clean, so a while back I created a small box design using my classic approach of a lid that slides into a base. ...

Evolution

Okay, one more post and then I'll stop spamming you all!

The picture above shows a few versions of the design for a... thing. I won't say what it is just now, but I field tested it for a week while hiking through the wilderness... :)

Details to come....

Lots of bits for a Bolted Cube

That's right, it's not a print-in-place design!  Lots of little parts in this one.  Four bolts per face, six faces, so 24 in total.  One corner piece for each of the eight vertices a cube has.  And, the six face plates.  So, that's 38 bits, if my late night calculations are correct (*takes sip of dubious energy drink*)

Now, what is this?  Well, it's a cube.  It's hollow, so you could call it a box.  In fact, it can be an open box if you print the...

Ahoy Mateys! :)

Hey there wonderful people!  New design is about to go up, but first I'm doing some housekeeping!  As you probably guessed from the title, there's piracy afoot!  Now, that's only to be expected, and there's not a whole lot to be done about it, but it turns out I'm doing two things that are likely not helping.

1. I have Patreon billing at the start of the month, rather than immediately.  This means that people can sign up, download stuff, then cancel, a...

Chompy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Let's start 2020 with more print-in-place fun! I give you... The Chompy Box!

Now, this thing was originally called something like "double cog box" and maybe you recognise its predecessor from the last post, but once I pulled it off the bed and flicked the lid open it was immediately the Chompy Box. Those teeth! Chomp chomp.



Opening one side of the lid wi...

A Rogues Gallery! Rejects and Experiments!

Ideas never just happen out of nowhere.  All those little steps we take to try something out, experiment, see what happens, they all lodge themselves into our brains.  Whether it's something purely technical or an entirely aesthetic endeavour, each thing  we do lets us reach a bit further next time.  Brains are great at taking what we've done before and abstracting it away so that we can concentrate on bigger challenges.  Yay, brains!  
I do a lot of this kind...

Merry Xmas! Let's Print Shifty Cylinders!

Well, almost another year over!  Actually, I'll save the nostalgia for a separate post (and talk about failures!) and instead let's get into another model!

So, I was working with that concentric moire vase design, and while experimenting with different shapes it occurred to me that you could make a container based on that concept... and here it is!  But what is it?

Of course it'...

Exclusive! Print-in-Place Slideback Box!

Some design concepts just work, first go!  This was not one of those :P

However, getting it working reliably and printably was great!  So, what is this thing?  Well, it's like a classic roll-top desk or cabinet, where the lid is articulated in man pieces that allow it to bend and slide along a rail.  I've called it "Slideback Box" because names are hard, and I've already used the name Rollerbox!

2019-12-21 14:50:43 +0000 UTC View Post

Bigger and Better! Have a Clampy Day

Well, I have to say that I like the new clamp better than the original!  The clamp plate is now more printable, in that it has bit more size in each dimension, making it less likely to come loose during printing.  

More importantly, though, I much prefer the texture on the new plate.  If there's one thing I love in designing stuff, it's working with texture.  Those little dots have a kind of lego feel to them...

Model is in the dropbox - the version is the same...

WIP - Clamp with larger plates - download available!

Hey everyone!  And welcome (and thank you!) to those of you who've just signed up!  I thought I'd throw this design up, even though I'm only just about to go print it off now, myself!  As you've probably worked out, it's an update to the print-in-place clamp, and it's intended to:

1) Provide a larger clamping area

2) Print more reliably by removing the relatively narrow piece that is prone to falling over.

Have a look at the red circled bit in this comparison ...

Exclusive! Print-in-Place Clamp!

"Why do you create?" asks the Patreon text box in front of me here, and for me the answer is often "I like a challenge!".  And this was a great one!

I was at my local hardware store, and happened past the clamps.  Now, I own many clamps, because clamps are just great things to have.  And I thought to myself, well, there are undoubtedly printed clamps out there, but could it be possible to print a clamp that's all print-in-place?  So, all pieces permanently connected?...

Exclusive! Moire Vase - Print-in-place concentric shell vase

Hey, wonderful people! :D

Wow, it's already mid-December, where has the month gone?!   Where has the year gone for that matter?!  It probably isn't a surprise that I find myself marking the passage of time by what things I've been printing, and the latest printed milestone in my life is another multi-part print-in-place design, but we have no hinges here.

Rather, this is a double-walled vase (not vase mode, obviously, just a vase in the regular sense of the word) in...

Exclusive! Rollerbox 2 - Print in Place!

Hey there, wonderful supporters!  You may or may not recall a design I posted on MyMiniFactory a while back, called "Rollerbox".  Let me find a link...

https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-rollerbox-86036


That one was a fun project - how do you construct a...

Exclusive! Sector Hinge Box Tray

Hi again! :D  As mentioned yesterday, we now have a tray for storing all those print-in-place hinged sector boxes, or whatever I ended up calling them.  Names are hard.  Anyway, it's in the Dropbox now, cryptically stored in the "Sector Hinge Box Tray" folder. 

Enjoy!

Exclusive! Sector Hinge Box

Get access to this model by joining my band of wonderful supporters at the Creative Printer level!  Thank you! :D

Hi everyone!  I am in hinge box heaven right now!  I have other design ideas I really want to get to (and okay, some of those are planned to have hinges, too), but I couldn't resist getting this concept out the door.  This is one that had been bouncing around my head for a while - basically a triangular box with a print-in-place support-free hing...

Exclusive! Centre Finding Jig

Howdy, wonderful supporters!  Happy December!

Right this moment I'm adding the final touches to another hinged box design, but in the meantime, here's my take on a neat tool that's been around forever.  This jig is one of those blindingly-obvious tools that I find immensely clever, and as you've probably realised, it's for finding the centre of circular things.

Basically, there's a lip on the underside with a 90 degree bend, and that gets pushed up against the edge of th...