Just because I didn’t label the Clockwork Spider on Thingiverse as a “work in progress,” don’t think I’ve given up on it. It exists now as an actual physically printed object and I’m very happy about that. However, the legs are just a stand-in1 for nice spidery looking legs I’ve already designed. There’s no point in printing the real legs up until I’ve gotten a mechanism that will make them work.
I’m so freaking happy with the design, print, and assembly.
You can assemble the entire thing by hand in just a minute or two with no tools or hardware. Turn the center wheel to make it walk. Right now the gears are a little rough – but I have an idea on how to fix that in the next revision. But, if the gears turned even slightly better, I think this design is almost ready for the big time.
I cannot wait to have a printed wind up rubber band powered clockwork spider skittering across my desk at work.
*skritch* *skritch* *skritch* “Oh, don’t mind leggy. She can smell fear.”
I just uploaded my latest designs to Thingiverse. I’m working on a RoboSpider using a set of gears run in an elliptical cycle. I’ve been through a few revisions already and just came up with a new idea on how to design it with a thinner profile and hopefully work more reliably.
Unfortunately, the snap-together system I had designed just wasn’t working very well. Also, my very VERY DIY gears are a poor substitute for using a legit gear script. They don’t mesh that well and it shows. I think I’ll give Cbiffle’s spur gear script filter for Greg Frost’s gear script a shot.
In the meantime, is anyone interested in designing a little rubber band powered motor to drive this thing?