I have an immense backlog of 3D printable designs I made over the past 10 years and I have been uploading those and new ones across various platforms. I have never done some self promotion and most models have gained natural traction. However, in this topic I hope to update you on my latest designs, give some backstory and open up a space for feedback!
I like my models to have something clever in them, something that accentuates the 3D printing possibilities and are not too big or complex to recreate! But other than that there is no theme to my designs: I get inspiration, can’t sleep a couple nights and have a design! Thanks for following me! And if you are not interested just skip this topic I guess?
This design print in three seperate pieces that slot together to create one multicolor model! And when assembling with care (making sure it fits smoothly, possibly with some silicone spray), you can easily slide it together and apart again:
But the “single extruder - dual color” contest over on Printables (based on my cow) pushed me to turn it up and create this triple color iteration based on a sleepy cat model, adding a basket and cushion. In the end it even led to me winning the contest, which was nice!
The model has a 0,2mm margin between all parts, but somehow on my Bambu A1 it fits with more friction than my other branded printers. Not sure where that comes from, but keep that in mind! A bit of lube helps a lot.
I have also made a scaled down version that fits on one plate and can be printed on one plate sequentially:
Phisically it should be possible to print the full scale like this but Bambu uses enormous margins when printing sequentially, making it possible in Bambu Studio sadly…
If you would like to create your own single extruder – dual color models, I created a tutorial on printables to aid others in the contest:
I really hope you like this creation, let me know what you think!
A couple months ago a friend of mine showed me a nifty roll up chess set and challenged me to design a better one. I started on the design but the Board Games Contest finally pushed me to finish the design.
Contrary to other designs, I really wanted a round exterior with closing lids. But I also wanted it to print in place without assembly needed, having integrated hinges in between the tiles.
Another requirement I set myself was that the design should be printable in multi color on a single extruder, non AMS printer. I have done this using the Multipass Multicolor from Make Anything on youtube. Just print the three colors after each other on the same build plate and you are good to go! Make sure to disable bed leveling and that kind of shenanigans though, because it might mess up the already printed colors.
And I am really stoked about how it turned out to be honest:
I also designed sleek looking chess pieces to go with it, but you can of course pick any available chess pieces set, scale them down and print them. The chess set works fine without magnets, but I also designed a version with magnets to make the pieces stay in place a lot better. The print profile has a pause in it, just make sure to orient the magnets correctly (A side up when placing in the board, B side up when placing in the pieces).
And that’s about it, please let me know your thoughts!
Secondly I received my A1 a couple of weeks ago with some spools of filament. Because a lot of colors were out of stock, except the Refill ones, I needed empty spools. Looking around on MakerWorld there are a lot of them! Mostly remixes of the Bambu one with just another pattern (although almost exclusively hexagons).
The Bambu one however, is designed that way for injection molding and not for 3D printing. It prints perfectly fine but it has a double wall in the center and especially the filament holding is done by two holes in the rim, leaving the filament sticking out. I have had a lot of spools like this over the years, but there is a lot of tension on the filament and when stacking/moving/storing/etc. these sticky out bits can break. That’s why I designed my spool to have a filament clip in the wall, making stacking possible without the fear of snapping off the end of the filament:
The V2 is because V1 only locked with a spool mounted. No problem you say, but people were (understandingly) testing the spool on its own before using it, and found that it didn’t lock properly and started complaining in the comments. So I changed the design slightly to make it lock on it’s own and make respooling possible.
Please let me know what you thing of the designs, and as always:
So this is quite an older design of mine, which I designed and printed about 7 years ago, just out of my own curiosity and interest. It took me days and days to print all the parts and it took me hours to assemble, but I am extremely proud of the end result and even the playability!
The 3D version of Settlers of Catan has almost 400 magnets to make it all work! I have never uploaded the design because of the complexity of the project. Because of the board game contest and the ‘maker supply’ I finally decided to create a print profile and publish the model!
Six years ago I did design an alternative version completely in TinkerCad based on Make Anything’s polypanels. It prints a lot quicker and all play pieces fit on friction. There is however a downside and that is that tolerances matter a lot. Still a very fun (dis)play object!
I don’t think the models will do well, due to the amount of printing and assembly, but I hope the right fanatics will find it and give it a try!
Please let me know what you think about these designs
Thanks! The ‘round’ one is the original though and all the ‘parametric’ parts were designed it SolidWorks. This allowed me to create convex pentagons and concave hexagons, making the tile size more balanced. All the magnets would have been a nightmare in TinkerCad as well. To create the landscapes I exported the parametric shapes incluiding a rough landscape to obj from solidworks:
The TinkerCad version came a year later when Make Anything published the PolyPanels and asked viewers to remix them. To be honest, I really like TinkerCad for its freedom and playfulness. In this project however things became a lot more challenging since dimensions and the overall mechanics were important as well and it is very hard to adjust a tolerance afterwards in TinkerCad.
I still think I did prove (and I am by no means not the only one) that you can push TinkerCad quite far! I do think I was helped out a lot by my experience in CAD design though, you really need to have a plan before you start designing something complex like this:
I designed this one just for myself (or for my grandmother actually) but I decided to share it anyway. It started in 2015 when I left uni and just moved into my house. I wanted to have a house warming, but I didn’t have much furniture yet so I needed some seating for my friends. I decided to design a quick and cheap lasercut stool that interlocked and tied together with tie wraps. Of course incluiding a beer holder and integrated opener. I called it LeCruq (kruk=dutch for stool):
Later that year I was approached to see if I wanted to sell these, just lose the beer holder. I said yes and created a complete line of accessories that were lasercut, being especially fond of the lights:
This year my grandmother (who owned one of these lights) moved to a much smaller appartment and last weekend was her birthday. Still having no present, I designed a tiny version of the lamp as a tealight holder, to fit better within her now tiny appartment. Here you can see them next to the original version:
I know this might not be as intrequite of a design but I just really like it, they give a very cosy shimmer while looking classy (IMO). And because the Bambu tealights should fit as well I decided to share them anyway, hope you like it too!
Mooi gedaan, Rossero. Het ziet er geweldig uit. Misschien kom ik in de verleiding om een lasersnijder aan te schaffen en kijken hoe jouw meubel design eruit komt te zien (ik heb ook nieuwe meubels nodig ).
Dankjewel! I’ll resume in English but yeah, laser cutters are extremely handy DIY tools, a lot quicker than 3D printing as well! So I understand if you would like to dip your toe into that.
Sadly there are no good platforms like MakerWorld for laser cutting where I could share files, even though I made a lot of designs. Like this chessboard for instance:
The glue-up is also very easy since all tiles are linked together into one piece. And the pieces can be stored back in the bottom of the board from where they are cut out:
So yes, a laser cutter is a very handy bit of kit! Luckily I have one at work, they can be quite expensive. But I believe they have become a lot more affordable! Still no good sharing websites as far as I can tell though with a quick google search
I really wanted a dice tower to improve the game night experience, but most dice towers require you to recollect the dice and throw them in the top again. So I really wanted a dice tower that would do this for you! There are some that work with levers, but I just really wanted to be able to Smash! the tower to re-roll the dice
There is a 3D printed spring included, but it is designed around Bambu’s 8x80mm springs. Even though I have been waiting on them for more than two weeks right now so I’m not sure how available these are short term. Until then, the printed spring will more than suffice!
I hope you like the design, and of course a link to the model:
I also enrolled into the Castle Contest so it would be nice if it got some traction. Please let me know how you like the design!
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