Pile 'o Polyhedrons: the Improved Screw

thingiverse

Initially, I encountered an issue with my attempt to create a throated worm screw design from Thingiverse (http://www.thingiverse.com/derivative:9733). The problem was that the thread profile was being extruded along the curve in space, but there was no adjustment of the profile to fit the curve's shape. This can be observed by comparing the images of this design with its parent. In a throated worm screw, the vertical orientation of the thread tip caused it to collide with the unwanted parts of the profile that had not tapered properly out of the way. To resolve this issue, I reworked the entire polyhedron and recalculated all the math vectors for a cleaner approach. Additionally, I made the shaft follow a curve defined by functions, which is more versatile but hasn't yet been extended to allow the shaft to be a torus with winding threads. Currently, this working script needs to be integrated back into the screw library (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:8793). However, with the recent arrival of my Thingomatic printer (thanks MBI!), I might need to focus on assembly, calibration, and printing first, so this task may be delayed. For the latest code, please check the GitHub repository: https://github.com/syvwlch/Thingiverse-Projects/tree/master/ExtrudePolygon