I 3D Printed Origami [video] | Hacker News Reader

I 3D Printed Origami [video]

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89 pointsTeever10 comments

When I got my first 3D printer one of the first things I learned, in a surprising twist, was how great they are at printing flat things.

What other kinds of flat things did you print?

Tom Stanton printed directly onto tissue paper to make extremely light airplanes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4X6KYlQ7YQ

shims, plates (the hardware kind with holes), etc. It would be great for anything assembled together with plates and spacers (robots, stands, etc). The alternative would be cutting those shapes out of something, with lots of waste and dust.

What a fantastic video! Thanks!

3D printers are good at printing snowflakes for Christmas too ;-)

A lot of low-profile split ergonomic keyboard cases (3d printed) are flat or nearly-flat halves that surround the PCB.

Example: https://shop.beekeeb.com/products/presoldered-chocofi-split-...

I make a lot of stuff using similar techniques to this guy[1]. Adding a mesh mid-print adds a good bit of structural integrity for thing pieces, and comes in handy for accessories like earrings and necklaces. Also fun to play with negative space when you start using optically interesting materials like iridescent or metallic meshes.

[1] https://thangs.com/designer/kaizen3dprints

The mini linear motion volumetric display is pretty neat too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgT20tHpk1g

Reminds me of Henry Segerman's expanding racks. Geared crazyness! https://www.youtube.com/@henryseg/videos

I wonder how their slicer is handling the infill angles. I suspect the bridge detection is only kicking in on the top layer, which ensures the infill angle is perpendicular to the gap. The bottom layer is going to follow a global angle and eventually run parallel to a hinge as the design gets complex (hence a later design failing and requiring thick hinges).

Painting infill angles would be tedious. I bet with concentric infill and some clever zero width cuts you could make all of the hinges perfectly perpendicular.

Thanks for sharing! I absolutely adore the meshing of mechanical engineering and origami. I cannot believe I never considered it.

Really cool!

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