Christmas Present: Sliding toy
This Christmas, I am going to be 3D printing a lot of items. I remember from my childhood, a toy that was a magnetic tileset that could be used to assemble 3-dimensional objects. So far, I have built the unit tile, which can self interlock and tile the plane indefinitely.
This post might be continuously updated and will include future endeavors and ambitions that I may not get the time to do.
Process
I wanted to make the original tile with the following constraints:
1) The tile must be symmetric along with the global X, Y, and Z axis, and must be printed along one of the orthogonal axes. This is so that the layer lines provide a clean look and should not be printed at an angle.
2) The tile must not require any support material whatsoever excluding the raft. This is to mitigate as much post processing. Many design changes were made that were not favorable in order to satisfy this constraint. Overhangs were beveled to have 45 degree angles just to meet this requirement.
3) The tile must use a joining mechanism similar to the dovetail joint, so that pulling will not break the connection. Offsets must be used to compensate for nozzle thickness, keeping a tolerance in check.
4) The tile must be printable at reasonable scales, like 1.5x through 4x.
UPDATE: The unit tile was made in a week after 6 revisions, but afterwards I decided to add to the collection with curved tiles, nonsquare tiles, and unorthodox tiles. I have plans on releasing some as sets or as puzzles.
Materials & Assembly
The design is intended for manufacturing with a 3D printer, and I prefer using PLA plastic. With the help of my local makerspace, I was able to get the prints in for free and I am honestly grateful for the supply of filament and the support I have gotten.
Conclusion
Once the tiles were printed, it was easy to assemble, and I found many uses that were unexpected. Printing tiles in multiple colors, you can make images by combining it. The joinery was a little loose so shaking a structure made by such would create an interesting rainy noise. To make this 3D, I added edge and corner tiles that only follow some of the constraints.
This class was very fun and I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!
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