Rotational Joints for cardboard crafting

thingiverse

I have three kids who all love crafting and they're always coming up with elaborate ideas that require me to do most of the heavy lifting. Since cardboard is basically free if you've got some on hand or can scrounge it up, I figured out a way to speed up crafting projects that need rotating joints. These joint parts are perfect for making robot arms, car wheels, helicopter rotor blades - whatever your kids' imaginations come up with. They're also great for creating modular designs where you can swap out different parts later on. I designed two versions of the joint: one with a ribbed surface and another without it. The ribbed version is perfect for robot arms because it keeps everything in place, while the smooth version allows for free rotation. When printing these parts, I recommend using PETG for the male part as it's more springy and will make assembly easier and last longer. You can use PLA for the female parts, but be careful not to break them when trying to remove the joint pieces. To make things easier, I designed a little hollowed-out base on each part so that hot glue will fit better when you're assembling them. If you don't want this feature, just use an offset to sink the part down into your printing bed.