clockspring3D

Flying Pill Saucers (small and large)

Hello again, my favourite people!

By popular demand, here we have a first take on a pill organiser!  Well, two takes, really, since we have two different sizes.  Now, pill organisers come in many different styles, but this is the classic one-compartment-per-day-for-a-week approach.  

The main consideration here was to be able to easily isolate just one compartment and then turn the whole container upside-down to empty it, and doing that as a print-in-place design to...

Little Treasure Chest (both single- and multi-material versions!)

Howdy, wonderful people!

I'm back into multimaterial printing at the moment, and finding any excuse to add a little colour to designs!  That said, this little treasure chest is intended to print just fine in a single material, too!

This diminutive treasure-oriented storage unit is a print-in-place design that requires no supports and prints with the lid open.  The insides of both the base and the lid are angled down to a V shape to allow them to be printed support-free a...

Odds and Ends! Funfair Vase, Snowflake Cup, Airtag Underseat Bracket, Segmented Atom Case

Funfair Vase

The Funfair Vase is purely an excuse to print in eight different filaments, and I haven't yet printed it myself!  A few people asked for a test model for eight filaments, however, so here we are!

When my suitable multimaterial hardware makes its way through the perils of international shipping and local flooding I'll be able to give it a try.  In the meantime, it's there for anyone who wants to give it a go!   Of course, you could ...

Vertebranium Headphone Stand

Howdy, wonderful people!

Do you need a ridiculously overly-complicated headphone stand?  Of course you do!  This vaguely-skeletal articulated print is a big one! 

The Vertebranium Headphone Stand prints on its side, curled up backwards (see picture down in the Printing Tips section), but then bends out and around so that all the hinges suspend the headphone bracket, and, of course, the headphones.  

You can lay the whole thing out flat, in fact:

2022-03-31 14:38:14 +0000 UTC View Post

Sixpin Box

Names are a funny thing, and I fully intended to give this one a more interesting one, but Sixpin Box it was during development and Sixpin Box it stayed.  So named because the lid has, well, six pins on a twisty angle that slot into the box!

Twist boxes are wonderful things, and I've made many of those in years past, but I wondered if I could use that twist idea in a different way, to manage the way a lid connects to a box.  Initially the pins were much longer, twisting outwar...

Correlation Vase (vase mode assembly!)

Howdy, wonderful people!

I set out to make a vase mode assembly that carried a similar style to the Reciprocal Vase and the Inversion Vase with their wavy lines and counter-swirls, with the plan that those inset bits could be different colours for enhanced snazziness!  And here we have it, the Correlation Vase!

There were some learnings along the way on this one, mostly around the properties of the geometry that would need to be in place for this to work...

First up, th...

Inversion Vase

Hello, my favourite people!

Those multicoloured coextrusion filaments have got me all inspired lately, and I set out to make something specifically to work with those toothpaste-style wonder filaments.  You can of course print it in anything you like, but the coextrusion filaments really are great fun!

So, what are the specific design features we're talking about?  First and foremost a whole bunch of sharply-angled intersections, most significantly those sweeping interna...

Updates! Multimaterial Pies, More Trays, Vase Mode Tubs, Neutron Tube Variants!

Time for some updates!  🥳

Neutron Tube Variations

The bottom layer on the Neutron Tube needs to be quite neat and tidy to avoid things binding together, as a few people discovered!  So, there are new versions in a subfolder that are listed as "easier print versions".  However, as with all things there is a compromise involved.  These alternative versions are far less vulnerable to bottom layer squishing binding things together, but it's at t...

Upswept Bowl

Howdy, wonderful people!

Many a design has crossed my path and been adorned with hexagons, but usually they're very neat.  Precise.  Orderly.  

The distorted honeycomb here is an intentional departure from that, but remains just as printable as ever, despite those shallow outline angles, and despite the fact that the hexagon mesh is not at all flat, and is instead contained within a spherical shell.  All those shallow angles are supported by nice 45-degree angl...

Catalyst Cube

Howdy, wonderful people!

Ah, the Catalyst Capsule!  Probably my favourite magnetic closure to date because of its satisfying snap and the way that the magnets keep it from opening, but without actually taking the force of holding it closed.  I decided there needed to be a cube version!

Now, initially I set out to make a rotating cube lid that worked in exactly the same way, but as you can imagine that wasn't terribly efficient on space, since the rotating elements would ...

Fireball Vase

Hello, my favourite people! :)

 I like big dodecahedra and I cannot lie!  Okay, these aren't that big, but there are lots of them, and they scale, stretch and stack into a long, thin vase that makes me think of low-poly pyrotechnics, hence the name!

As always with vase mode, the trick is in managing the angles and making sure things aren't inclined too steeply either going upwards or downwards, but all these dodecahedra are well behaved and friendly.

2022-02-28 03:44:28 +0000 UTC View Post

Cake Slice Box

It's a gift box!  Well, probably.  Maybe you just like cakes and want to store things in cakes.  Hmm, pies, doughnuts, and cakes.  Do I get hungry when designing, or something? :P

This particular cake has a hinged lid with optional magnet closure to keep its contents secure, which would be particularly important if you were using it to store cake.

Technically, this is ...

Hanging Workshop Tubs

Howdy, wonderful people!

Styled after the Workshop Trays these tubs are taller and set up for mounting on vertical surfaces!  Thanks to the keyhole-style mounting holes on the back, the tubs can be hung on mounting brackets.  However, the tubs have no protruding parts, so they'll still sit together nicely on a bench, and they're all the same height as three stacked Workshop Trays, just for neatness :)

Current Tub Designs

There are a couple of versions:

Neutron Tube

Howdy, wonderful people!

Welcome back to the world of print-in-place assemblies!  This sci-fi-styled geometric cylinder features a hinged circular lid that is locked down by a big, threaded ring.  The whole thing prints assembled and in a closed position, with no supports required.  And, in fact, it all prints upside-down.

You'll notice there are four different sizes of these tubes!  They only differ in height - the mechanical parts are identical across the mod...

Requests, Tests and Odds & Ends!

A bunch of updates and random things - I'm just going to pile all these into one post!

Magnetic Slide Top Box

An oldie but a goodie!  The Slide Top Box is an older model, a square-ish box with, as the name suggests, a sliding lid that runs on a groove inside the box lip.  I had a request to update that design to use 6x3mm magnets to keep the box close...

Semikilter Box (vase and regular modes)

Howdy, wonderful people!

It's a box with a big, slotted front opening!

It's fun to take advantage of printing things on odd angles, to do things that are otherwise just not possible.  Here we have a box with six sides and a wide, slotted front that gets printed at 45 degrees so that all six of those sides are at nice, easy angles for printing.

You'll also notice that smooth curve at the lower front - that wouldn't be there in a conventional print, since the lower part w...

Tiny Pie Boxes!

It's a woven-topped tiny pie box!  Just right for storing important things like M3 bolts, M3 nuts, and, well, probably other things as well, as long as they're small.  

This tiny pie is better with magnets to hold it closed, but there's also a version that is magnet-free, since the magnets do occupy a bit of space in what is a fairly diminutive pie.

Optional M...