clockspring3D

Pedal Pop Lid Box

Hi, most wonderful people!

Being able to prototype and test things so easily is one of the huge benefits of 3D printing, and it really shines when developing mechanical models that involve numerous moving parts. The thing about printed-in-place mechanical designs is that they necessarily require gaps between moving parts so that they don't just fuse into a single object during printing. These gaps mean that parts can move in all sorts of unintended ways - up, down, backwards, sidewa...

Cogalicious Slim Can Caddy

Howdy, wonderful people!

Are you tired of drinking energy drinks in ways that don't overtly broadcast your enthusiasm for 3D printing?! Fear not, with the Cogalicious Slim Can Caddy you can enjoy the logistical benefits of handles while also prompting passers-by to enquire about the stylish filament you happened to choose!

This design is built around the fairly standard 250ml energy drink can dimensions, but there are some features incorporated that give it a little bit of flexibi...

Window Jars

Howdy, wonderful people!

I love combining different materials with printed models. Sometimes it's purely for the sake of it, but there are plenty of occasions where adding something is just a much better solution to a problem.

I I wanted a jar with a lid that allowed me to see the stuff inside, without said stuff being able to just fall out. And so we have a multi-part lid designed to incorporate a plastic (or glass, if you're fancy) window. The lid is designed with threads on top...

Steampunk Airship (Vase Mode)

Ahoy-hoy, wonderful people!

Ah, vase mode and steampunkery, two of my favourite topics, and not the first time they've found themselves combined - maybe this airship is heading for the vase mode steampunk lighthouse!

These blimpy things are very much round shapes, and so the obvious problem is how to render such a shape within the constraint of having no angle greater than 45 degrees from vertical.

The solution, not surprisingly, is to hide the unprintably-rounded bits under...

Marshallow Magic

Ah, the joys of warm cocoa! Or hot chocolate, depending on your local vernacular. Yes, it's another entry in the list of questionable food choices, and this mug of marshmallow magic is of course secretly a container, in which you could store things. Marshmallows, perhaps!

While the mug itself is a single print, the lid is an assembly of parts, in that the marshmallows on top are attached by bolts from underneath.  I did consider just making the lid a single body for a filament swap...

Icosidodecahedral Gift Box Assembly

Yay, polyhedral assemblies! And a gift box, specifically, though a somewhat obnoxious one, depending on whether the recipient enjoys assembling and disassembling things. It's reasonably large (see mug for scale in the photo!)

As you've probably gathered from the title, it's a gift box in the form of an icosidodecahedron, which is the shape you'd get if you took a dodecahedron and chopped all the points off*. Interestingly, when checking to see that I was correct in saying that, I disco...

Bandylatch Box

Howdy, wonderful people!

I've finally got these things posted! Apologies for the delay and thank you for your eternal patience and support! ♥️ Right, let's see what this thing is, then...

Springs are interesting things, and I've mentioned before that I'm eternally hesitant about printed ones. That's almost certainly a silly position to take, but it's a good excuse to incorporate other materials instead! My favourite so far is magnets, mostly because invisible magnet...

Hexapumpkin!

I'm sure you'll agree if that if there's one thing that's largely neglected in Halloween celebrations, it's hexagons! But together we can make the world a better place for hexagonal festivities, one dodecahedral pumpkin at a time!

How do you make a dodecahedron look like a pumpkin, though? Well, obviously printing it in orange is a good start, but this one all came down to the lid design! While the lid is still full of hexagonal features, it does have a set of gentle bumps that conv...

Ghost Nook Vase Box (with lid!)

Boooo!

It's nearing Halloween, and that means an excuse for ghosts, skulls, pumpkins and all the other fun things! Okay, skulls are appropriate any time of the year, but ghosts and pumpkins are very much seasonal! Which brings us to this spooky little vase mode box!

The challenge in this one, as is probably apparent, was to somehow make something stand freely inside something else, while adhering to the strict requirements for vase mode printing, which are primarily a) every hor...

Little Skeleton Compartment

Howdy, wonderful people!

The Little Robot Compartment is one of the more fidget-friendly models I've made of late! That springy resistance in the lid, er, head, when it's closed is just too satisfying. But it's almost Halloween, so now we have a more skeletal version! The Little Skeleton Compartment isn't exactly the same, but the mechanism is adapted. This bony version has a bit more volume internally, though, and obviously the exterior is a bit different, too.

How this conta...

Bandit Box

Howdy, wonderful people!

There are lots of ways to make mechanisms that have a bit of spring to them! Mechanical springs are the obvious thing that spring to mind (har har), but of course the Lodestone Latch Box mechanism used sets of attracting and repelling magnets to implement a spring too. But one thing I hadn't tried working with was rubber bands.

Ah, the Lodestone Latch Box! I love the latching mechanism, but it really would have been improved if unlatching also lifted th...

Hex Slider Box

Howdy, hexagon fans! 🤘🧐🤘

Yes! It's a roll-top box with a lid made of hexagons! What more could you ask of life, really, but more hexagons?

While this did end up as a roll-top box, I really just set out to make a box where the lid would move entirely out of the way so that, for example, a bunch of boxes could sit next to each other on a workshop bench without a need to clear space for a hinged lid folding over the back. There are a bunch of ways to approach this problem, b...

Corrugation Flask - vase mode assembly!

Howdy, wonderful people!

I enjoy making vase mode models that comprise multiple parts, but actually getting the parts to stay together is always a conundrum. I'll often just have parts slip in from above and rely on gravity to hold things in place, but for this model I wanted clean and neat results that were only going to come from having parts join from underneath.

This sci-fi-ish-looking flask has four voids around the outside, into which fit separately-printed vase mode panels...

Latcher Bowl

Hey there, wonderful people!

I've been doing all sorts of latch-style things recently, but I've generally ended up with either threads or magnets involved, and I figured I'd see if I could get something working that just deformed the material itself. I'll stop short of saying "by using printed springs", though, for reasons that I'll get into momentarily! But the short story is that these stacking tubs rotate and click together, and likewise there's a lid that uses the same mechanism. ...

Rolly Bin

Hi hi, wonderful people!

Sometimes you just want to make a container with a lid-flipper handle, but somehow it ends up with wheels, too! This one came about as the conjunction of two separate ideas, you see - the flippy handle, and thoughts on whether it would be viable to put wheels on a container that printed on its edge...

One of the obvious limitations with printing a container in an orientation other than right-way-up is that there tends to be an overhang issue directly upwa...

Waffle Cone!

Howdy, wonderful people!

Yes, more questionable food choices rendered in printed form! This time, it's the classic kind of waffle cone that you'd find in the freezer section, and which Wikipedia informs me was a difficult product to make until some clever person thought of coating the inside of the cone with sugar, oil and chocolate to stave off sogginess during storage. What an age we live in! Okay, that was actually some time ago, and now we have 3D printers, so this age is still p...

Lodestone Cases

Much as I loved the adventure that the Lodestone Latch Box took me on, there were a few things that I really did want to redo. And, it needed to be bigger!

So, now there are two much larger sizes. Oh, and I restyled it while I was rebuilding things, so there are a lot of hexagons on there, too :D

The main change you'll notice, though, is that the lid no longer moves or rattles when clo...

Planetary Webcam Elevator

This one has been on my to-do list for so long! Webcams and cameras in general really do need adjustable supports, and there is a distinct lack of gratuitously complicated ones around.

This one uses a pair of big planetary gear setups with in-built locking latches! The latch is a sliding switch that is attached to locking pin internally that engages with the ribs on the outer gear, keeping it from going too far.

2024-07-07 17:05:39 +0000 UTC View Post

Little Robot Compartment

Howdy, wonderful people!

That's right, it's a tiny robot box! But what it is really is an excuse for me to explore a more secure kind of magnetic twist latch! A tiny robot with a more secure latching mechanism, what more could you ask in life?! :D

I've implemented a few versions of the kind of closure that uses a connect-and-twist approach to holding things closed, and the magnets in those just keep the lid from rotating and coming open. At least, it does in theory! A forcefu...

Modular Steampunk Tube

Hello, hello, wonderful people!

Sometimes you just need something in which to store long, narrow things, and that's what this overly-decorated model is all about! Even better if your long, narrow things are arbitrary in length because you can just plug in another segment and increase capacity!

Module Connections and Lids

Our old friend the magnetic latch is back for this one! I do love the secure snapping-ness of that kind of closure. So, the lid pops on ...

Inversion Ruffle Vase - vase mode assembly!

Howdy, wonderful people!

You might recall a while back we had a bracelet model that printed in vase mode without any bottom layers at all. Now, that model proceeded to zigzag through three-dimensional space to give the model a bit of rigidity, but what if we did the opposite, and designed for wibbly-wobbly flexibility, and the ability to turn entirely inside-out? And could we use such things to adorn a more conventional vase model?

Early versions of this model had the ruffles tw...

Magnetic Capacitance Box! 4040 Fan Adaptor! Battlement Tower Update!

Magnetic Capacitance Box

The Capacitance Box for sleeved cards was a journey into tricky thread angles and tenuous security, and someone asked if it could perhaps have magnets instead! Of course, magnets are easy enough to add, but what I really wanted was a latch that would take all...

Alchemical Hazard Jar Lamp

It's eerie illumination time!

Inspiration is a funny thing, and we really can take some twisty roads to get to a destination. I set out to make another lamp using LED strips, but ended up with a design that can really use any kind of compact light at all, as long as you can wedge it in somewhere and make it point in a useful direction! This lamp didn't end up being designed around the light source, but instead around a light modifier...

2024-06-03 16:07:33 +0000 UTC View Post

Steampunk Aquatic Denizen - Vase Mode!

Ahoy, wonderful people!

Behold! An explorer from the mechanical depths! This Steampunk Aquatic Denizen has a decidedly chunky, mechanical style, but is actually printable in vase mode!

Building up vase mode designs is a matter of just observing a few rules. No isolated pockets or points allowed! No very steep or very shallow angles permitted! Even less steepness permitted on curve...

Ribcage Roller Dice Tower

Howdy, wonderful people!

Do you sometimes feel like your dice rolling is just lacking a certain skeletal, ribcage-y aspect to it? Me too! But now the Ribcage Roller can solve our problems and provide randomness in a dynamic, skeletonish kind of way! Just pop some dice into the top of the skull, then pinch the levers at the back and let those dice clatter their way to victory!

Now, gravit...

Skull Rose Goblet

Hello, my favourite people!

We are back in vase mode land with this gothic goblet, and as usual it was an adventure getting such a complicated form into a state where it strictly adheres to being printable with one continuous line. Such a fun one, though!

As with the Choc Chip Muffin Box, though, the tricky bit was not the technical aspects at all, but getting the shape of the rose part right. I wanted something that looked dramatic, elegant, a bit gothic, but most importantly s...

Choc Chip Muffin Box

Howdy, wonderful people!

Yes, it's time for more questionable food choices! Though, are choc chip muffins really questionable? You could always choose your filament wisely and just say they're blueberry muffins instead! :D

Modelling these kinds of things is always a fascinating process to look back on, because ultimately it's all about finding those essential features that identify the thing in question. In this case, the tricky bit was the muffin top. Early versions had much ...

Fan Block Raspberry Pi 3/4/5 Cases

Ahoy-hoy, wonderful people!

Sometimes you just can't keep your Raspberry Pi cool! But never fear, this variation on the clamshell RPi cases is built around incorporating a large fan for extra coolness!

It's also a much larger case with an abundance of space inside, so it's also relevant for projects that need that kind of volume. In fact, a circular grille on the side in early versions of this was discarded in favour of this vertical line style so that it wouldn't look odd if t...

Vexatious Contrivance

Howdy, wonderful people!

Well, this is one of the more involved mechanical things I've come up with! Complicated linkages are a tricky thing for print-in-place models because parts can't be too close to each other during printing, but that also means there's a degree of play in each connection between parts, and when you link a bunch of moving parts together that cumulative slack in the motion can be rather dismaying. This design, however, is built around the lever being connected dir...

Capacitance Sleeved Card Box

Hey there, wonderful people!

Yes, this is the other case for sleeved cards - the overly complicated one! It's a steampunk-ish box with a lid that swings a full 270 degrees, the reason for which we will get to soon! But first, interior dimensions! As with the Slimline Sleeved Card Box this is designed to hold single-sleeved "standard" cards, which is to say 63mm x 88mm cards (e.g. Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, and an abundance of others).

Interior dimensions: 80mm wide,...