Printable Helicone

thingiverse

Helicone is an interactive sculpture by John Edmark (http://www.johnedmark.com/#/rotating/) (more info http://beyond123.com/pa/helicone.html). You can purchase one on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NOSWFQM). By rotating the shaft, the arms settle into a helix or a pinecone shape that fills out space completely using half of the Golden Angle. I saw several videos of it in action and decided I wanted to try making one. I found a few models online, but they all relied on externally visible notches for stops, which the Helicone does not display. After coming up with my solution, I saw a "making of" video (http://www.bradleytangonan.com/the-making-of-the-helicone/) with some screenshots of the laser pattern indicating it uses a very similar mechanism. A video (https://youtu.be/lQPQOuyPJHM) shows it working. You can use the Customizer to change various dimensions and petal shape. If you download the OpenSCAD file, you can also adjust the number of slices and experiment with different functions to change the helix angle and 3D outline. The color change in photos/video is due to running out of black paint and having to replace two slices due to breakage.