3d Printed Hand Fan

grabcad

This is my submission for the 3D Printing Event Challenge. I hope you enjoy my piece and hope that it fulfills your requirements. The idea for this item came to me while I was waiting for power to come back to my house. There was a power cut on that day for my region in my city (Male') and well... thank you Stelco. Hehehe... I wanted it to be a functional, simple and reliable design/build. I think I was able to do that. As to the aesthetics, I like it... and I hope the majority public does too. The 3d Printed Hand Fan consists of 10 parts to be assembled. Out of these there are 4 unique parts: 1. Core Flap X 1: This is the main assembling flap. 2. Arranged Flap X 7: This is the flaps that are arranged in the middle. 3. End Flap X 1: This is the last flap that is placed. 4. End Screw Cap X 1: This is the cap that gets screwed into the Core Flap to hold the assembly together. The material to be used is a relatively sturdy plastic. I am not a materials person (nor an actual engineer for that matter) so I am not able to give precise material specifications. The largest part has a length not more than 250mm. The rules did not state that the different parts couldn't be assembled together to create a larger assembly. But even still... the assembled fan does fit the 10" by 10" by 10" rule. That is all I can say about this item. Aah... don't forget the feedback! Hehehe UPDATES: These are changes made based on user feedback. These changes have been made before the deadline of the 3D Printing Event Challenge. Mod A (1st Sept 2012): As suggested by Luke (Luke) I have changed the end screw cap. Instead of a little tab a rectangular though cut allows a flat head screw driver to be used to tighten the cap. This improves the ergonomics. Mod B (1st Sept 2012): As suggested by Azrael (Azrael) I have implemented a locking mechanism as shown in the last image in the gallery. I have also added a small extrusion in the cap head to allow the flaps to slight move for this feature to work. Again, though I have given a value to this extrusion I think this might need to be adjusted after the first test print. I have never used a 3D printer before nor seen a printout and I cannot know the imperfections involved. Based on this and the material used the extrusion might need to be increased (or reduced) slightly to just allow the locking mechanism to work but prevent too much shaking of the flaps.