clockspring3D
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Gothic Star Ball
🕑 Added 2020-11-15 07:41:14 +0000 UTCHowdy, wonderful people!
Ever feel like your life is lacking both gothic splendour and solid geometry? I know I do! This stylish stellated dodecahedron is just the thing for addressing this, especially this time of year where star-oriented festive decor is in fashion.
So, silliness aside, what are the interesting design points on this one? Well, the real trick is how it all joins together. I wanted to avoid internal brackets on this one, since I'd already taken that approach with the bolted polyhedra, and instead I wanted some kind of external fastener. But, the problem is that we need every side of the vertex piece to be able to join up with any other side. That's a bit of a problem for the idea of just splitting a threaded element in half, since the halves of a thread will be different. 
You can already see how it ended up of course - there are two sets of half threads on each side. Why is this important? Because those two threaded parts are not identical, they're the two different halves of the same thread, which means when we take an identical piece and rotate it 180 degrees it'll slot in and form a full thread. That lets us keep every side the same, and thus have only one vertex piece instead of some convoluted combination of custom parts!
By comparison, there's nothing terribly technical about the coloured inserts and the retaining rings that hold them in. The vertex has inset thread grooves that accept the rings, which keep the loose-fitting inserts nice and securely in place. Of course, the inserts are entirely optional - you can just stick to the vertex pieces and the nut pieces if you prefer :)
Oh, and there's an alternative "lobed nut" model in the folder too - I decided I liked the circular ones better, but I've included both.
Printing Tips
This one should be pretty easy! In fact, I test printed this on an Ender 3 with the fastest, roughest default slicing settings and it still printed and assembled just fine. No supports needed, of course. Print orientations are like so:
How Many Pieces Do I Print?
12 vertex pieces and 60 nuts. If you're doing the inserts you'll need 12 inserts and 12 retaining rings.
File Locations
You'll find these on dropbox under: 790 Gothic Star Ball
(Post with dropbox link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/31697592 )
A quick aside!
By popular demand, there's now a version of the middle piece of the Hex Dice Tower that has a threaded top, as per the bottom piece, so that the bolt can be threaded in while it's in use! This does not, of course, hold the tower together, that's the same as before - it just holds the top piece on, and gives the bolt somewhere to live :)
You'll find the model in the same directory as all the other parts for the Hex Dice Tower!
Happy printing (and rolling)!
xoxo
Sven.
Comments
Todd Coello
I ended up printing the main triangle with 2 wall and 0 infill and it printed great. I have 5 more main ones and 2 middle inserts
Todd Coello
I am almost done with the whole thing. It is looking great. The vase mode idea for the rings are great only takes a little bit and I also found you can print more than one a the build plate in vase mode at a time. I wasn't sure lol. but now doing 6 at a time. 1 hour. the inside triangles are taking about 48 minutes on my Geeetech a20m and the outside pieces are taking the longest at about 1.45 hours per.
Clockspring3D
Thanks for the heads up! Now fixed :) Text also updated to mention how many bits one needs to print!
Todd Coello
Ok, just so you know the other one orientation is like 45 degrees and needs to be adjusted to lay flat on the bed.
Clockspring3D
Just one or the other - they just differ in outer shape, so use the one you like best :)
Todd Coello
what is the difference between the 2 different nuts? Do we use both or one or the other?
Todd Coello
lol ok I will read through the comments. oh wow look there it is right above my question lol
Clockspring3D
It's in the comments above, after Cathy asked the same question! I'll have to put it in the main text :)
Todd Coello
I am going to start the star tonight. How many of the parts do we need? or is it posted and I missed it.
Clockspring3D
Oh man, as someone who generates a ton of empty spools this has been on my mind for a long time! The classic use is storage box inserts, but that's been done many times before. Hmm, maybe empty spools could work as wheels, hahaha :P
Todd Coello
I really need to try one of these one day. Have you ever thought about or maybe try a idea session on something cool to do with old filament spool holders? I have a bunch and with your design ideas and skill I bet you could think of something so cool
Clockspring3D
Neat idea! I can put it up on Dropbox if you like - just email it to clockspring3d at gmail.com :)
Andre Fowler
I made a vase-mode version of the Insert Retainer that prints in half the time if anyone is interested in me posting it somewhere.
Clockspring3D
Thank you! Fixed now :)
Marc Chametzky
Just to let you know, your Dropbox link above has an inadvertent trailing parenthesis that prevents it from working properly.
Clockspring3D
That is an excellent question! 12 vertex pieces and 60 nuts. If you're doing the inserts you'll need 12 inserts and 12 retaining rings :)
Cathy O'Malley
How many of each piece do we need to print?
Clockspring3D
Thank you for the amazing support! đ
Thank you very much for the awesome models
