Yet another gyro cube

thingiverse

This was inspired by thing 19026. I was new to 3D printing and thought printing this would be a challenge because of the large unsupported curves. I didn't like the way Slic3r put in support (too hard to remove), and I was learning OpenSCAD, so I decided to try designing something similar to play around with printing "hard parts" such as arches, pins, and sockets, and putting my own support in. The code isn't cleanest, and the design isn't as pretty as the inspiration, but I finally decided it might be a good idea to put it out. I printed it in PLA on my Prusa Mendel i2 RepRap. Instructions Most of the parameters to control size, number of shells, etc. appear near the top of the .scad file. I think most are reasonably self-explanatory. The stl files are generated from the .scad file as posted. There are several alternative top level modules. Uncomment the appropriate one at the bottom of the file. Top level "showPrintable" will generate the shells, which are all printed together, nested. After printing, snip out the support in each vertical opening and the band of rafting at the bottom that holds the pieces together on the print bed. Then fit the pins of each shell into the sockets of its parent (requires stretching the arms out a bit). Top level "stand" prints a stand for displaying the gyro. Top level "showAssembled" does not generate printable stl, but will show how the shells fit together when printed. If you animate this one in OpenSCAD (I suggest 100 steps at perhaps 3 frames per second), you will see how the shells spin inside each other.