Nozzle Spoke Beads

prusaprinters

<p>Anybody here remember those <a href="https://www.doyouremember.co.uk/memory/spokey-dokeys">little plastic beads that you put on your bike spokes</a> and made a terrific racket whenever you slowed down enough?</p><p>Well here's my twist on the 80's icon; a spoke bead in the shape of a nozzle. I've hollowed out the tip of the nozzle to create a small chamber to try and improve the noise they produce. As the video shows, they really do work despicably well.</p><figure class="media"><oembed url="https://youtu.be/4XHgg8DRYl8"></oembed></figure><p>Its an OpenSCAD design so you should be able to adjust and customize the design for different spoke diameters if required, but the provided design worked well on a selection of round spokes approximately 2mm in diameter. I've been commuting with them for the last few days and haven't lost any yet, just gained a few more smiles while I crank up the miles!</p><p>Originally I thought I'd print the design with a glow-in-the-dark filament (the brief being safety after all), but instead I used a bunch of roll ends and ended up with some beads made from Prusament PLA, some Flashforge PLA and some PolyTerra PLA. One thing I hadn't really anticipated was the difference that these various filaments would make to the sound produced by the breads. Some of the beads made a distinctly brighter sound, while others produced a more muted hollow note. I have absolutely no idea how I'll use that learning in the future, but something to keep in the back pocket.</p>