Tag Archives: cube

New 3x2x1 Rubik’s cube design – totally printable!

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X-Ray view of the 3x2x1 puzzle cube

X-Ray view of the 3x2x1 puzzle cube

This is easily my most intricate digital design for the MakerBot yet.  It’s a 3x2x1 variation on the Rubik’s cube puzzle I had posted earlier.

This version incorporates the prior improvements as well as designing a connector system inspired by R3bbeca‘s beco block connectors.

This has enabled a totally printable toy.  This just makes me happy. 1  The idea that I can crank out a set of these parts, clean them up a little, and just snap the toy together is just amazing.

TomZ‘s original 1x2x3 “friendlier” Rubik’s cube designs were also totally printable – but required a printed pin that was later glued in place.  I like the ideal of all printed parts – but strongly prefer a design that can later be disassembled easily.  And, as I mentioned above – the ability to hand assemble the toy is important to me.

I wasn’t able to recreate R3bbeca’s female connector designs2 so I made a simplified version that should suffice.

The simplified connection mechanism is essentially two plastic fingers that will (hopefully) pinch the barbell into place.  This was made by designing the outline of the gripping “fingers,” creating a horizontal cylindrical hole slightly larger than the intended end of the barbell, then creating a vertical cylindrical hole in the center for the barbell to be inserted through, then a bit of cleanup.

The biggest potential problem is that this design will require a carefully tuned ‘bot.  The center cube pieces have a lot of stuff packed in there – semi-circular slots for the semi-circular tabs, connectors for the barbell, and thin walls separating things.  With those thin walls and interior overhangs, this may be a difficult design to print.

I think Bender is up to the task, but we’ll see in a few hours.  :)  I can’t wait to print this!

For me, having a MakerBot is like waking up to Christmas every morning.

Oh, and before I forget, if you want one of these – leave a comment or send me an e-mail through the Contact page.  Make me an offer.

  1. Perhaps a little prematurely, since I haven’t actually printed this yet… [↩]
  2. I believe I’ve already sufficiently lamented my inability to understand women and their mysterious lady ways. [↩]

A MakerBot printed 3x2x1 Rubik’s Cube!

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Lotu's print of the 3x2x1 Simplified Rubik's Cube

Lotu's print of the 3x2x1 Simplified Rubik's Cube

SWEET.  I’ve been so busy of late123 that I haven’t even been able to print several of the things I’ve uploaded. I’ve uploaded several cookie cutters, with another sitting on my hard drive and one more knocking about in my head keeping the cobwebs company.  I’ve also uploaded my variation on a simplified Rubik’s cube.

Well, someone printed it!  It looks AMAZING!  I wonder if it works properly?  I slapped the design together rather hastily after getting frustrated with my MakerBot failing to print TomZ’s 1x2x3 Rubik’s cube.4

I can’t wait to either get some feedback from Lotu (who printed it) or print up one of my own so I can improve on the design.  I’d really like to make a version that is 100% printed – with a snap joint in the middle rather than a nut/bolt system.  If I go down that route, I was thinking about incorporating what I learned from the fantastic Becco blocks connection system by r3becca.

If you print one of these, please answer the following questions:

  1. Which STL did you use?  The one with all 6 pieces or the one with 3?  Would you prefer printing the pieces one at a time?
  2. How well did they fit together?  Are they very snug?  Too loose?
  3. How well does the nut/bolt work?
  4. Did you have to adjust your Skeinforge settings at all?  Why?  How?
  5. Do you have giant hex wrenches like Lotu does?
  1. Mostly writing nonsense. [↩]
  2. Which is particularly funny since my day job consists almost entirely of writing. [↩]
  3. Which is even funnier when you consider that you can tell I’m doing a particularly good job when my writing is completely incomprehensible. [↩]
  4. Did you catch how I swapped all the numbers around to differentiate my derivative?  I thought that was pretty clever… [↩]

New design: Rubik’s Cube (sorta)

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Rubik's Cube for Dummies

Rubik's Cube for Dummies

I’ve already posted about how much I like TomZ’s simplified version of a Rubik’s cube.  Only problem is that I wasn’t able to encourage my MakerBot to print it.  Taking into account some of my ideas, I’ve designed a derivative.  It’s 4:45am at the moment – not a good time to have my MakerBot tooting and beeping.  ;)

Here’s what I’ve done with this version:

  1. Oriented the STL so it is immediately printable
  2. Run the STL through NetFabb to make sure it is manifold
  3. Reduced the number of unique printed parts from 5 to 2
  4. Put the STL together in such a way that you can print up two of the STL’s for a total of 6 parts, ready to be assembled
  5. Shrunk-ified the nubs for that fit into the center pieces
  6. Enlargened the grooves for the nubs
  7. Oriented the three parts so that they would use a minimal raft
  8. Changed the design so it will accommodate a nut/bolt attachment system rather than several additional plastic parts that must be glued together

In a future iteration, I hope to change the middle pieces so that all you need to do is snap the two middle pieces together.  Also, I’d like to incorporate any design suggestions from people who have tested this version.

Rubik’s Cube Fail

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I just tried to print up the 1x2x3 Rubik’s cube puzzle from TomZ.  I really like the idea of it.

Unfortunately, it’s just not working for me.  I had to rotate all of the STL’s 90 degrees to make them printable.  Once most of the parts were printed I discovered it’s not going to fit together.  The swivelly bits on “Part 1” are too large to rotate freely inside the center cubes.  If the grooves in “Part 2” were much larger it wouldn’t fit inside the part.

At this point, it’s probably easier to start building the entire puzzle from scratch.  Here’s what I’m thinking:

  1. Make the swivelly bits on Part 1 smaller
  2. Make the grooves in Part 2 slightly larger
  3. Make a notch in Part 2 and Part 3 so that it can be put together with an M3x16 nut and bolt instead of a plastic pin