Transformers COMBINER WARS Defensor Foot

youmagine

This is a ball-jointed foot for your Combiner Wars, or any other 5mm peg compatible transformers gestalts. It was heavily inspired by the original G1 Defensor foot. It comprises two modules: the foot body (two versions with minor detail changes) and a ball joint module. The latter one is separate, so you don't have to bin the whole thing if the peg should break. Or, you could use it in your own designs. A couple of tips: The ball joint is a tricky print. To get some trouble out of the way, I cut off the top. It will make it much easier to print (peg facing up), no supports, no stringing, no scarring etc. Print with 100% infill, and with PLA - print the sphere without fans, as they will make the layers curl up. If necessary, print slower (I print mine at 30-40mm/s). Just be advised that slower prints translate into bigger filament flow resulting in a ball being slightly bigger. That's why I include three sizes of balls - 14.8, 14.7 and 14.6 - so you can easily test which one will fit. Once the sphere is done, turn the fans fully on to get a nice and smooth peg. Also print one object at a time to avoid stringing and scarring. Be advised that the ball should be smoothed/sanded a bit before you squeeze it into the socket. I do the smoothing by putting the ball into a battery drill and rotating it against a sanding sponge (pic attached). Try to get as small a gradient as possible. There is no need to smooth out the socket inside as long as the ball is even and smooth. The ball should pop into the socket with only a little bit of force - if you need to push it really hard, or worse - against the floor or so - this means the ball still needs some filing down. Try printing all balls and getting the best result for your printer and filament. Note: If you make the joints too tight or try to force a jammed joint to move using a Combiner Wars figure port, you are likely to damage the port in your figure! Best to print all balls, smooth them out, and do the socket fitting tests starting from the smallest one. Depending on your printer quality, you might want to smooth out the sides of the socket module and the socket it goes into in the foot body. It should go in with some friction, but excess friction will make it hard to remove should anything break. To get it out, simply take one of your damaged ball joint sockets (don't worry, I destroyed some 20 or 30 of these before I got the thing running :). The ball joint should provide enough friction to pose the gestalt on one foot only (you will however have a problem with the original joints collapsing :). As for printing of the foot, it's up to you. I print 0.8 mm shell and 10% infill, perimeter after infill, and "one at a time". Hope you enjoy it! Any questions or requests - comment or message me. PS: I don't know why but the STL exported upside down. Nevertheless, it is the same foot as pictured, just need to rotate it in slicer. PS2: Adress 2 pictures of different feet prototype with same ball joint to illustrate its abilities. Note - getting the joint that sort of performance will require a bit of trial and error. EDIT: Added four files - all with FINAL in name - one socket with corrected socket inlet and smoothed bottom for easier insertion into feet, and three balls with a bit thicker peg and modified connection between peg-ball. The balls have a diameter of 14.7; 14.75 and 14.8 and should work on most accurate printers. Also, it is better to print it in ABS than PLA as it is more flexible. I print all my balls at maximum infill. I have also noticed that sockets with low infill are a bit more loose than with dense infill (ABS printed), check how your machine behaves. The project is free but it would be nice if you gave some appreciation and contributed so I can keep wasting my time on doing cool stuff like that! If you want to contribute, please PM me or go to paypal.me/PiotrSidoruk. Thanks and enjoy!