Dragonfly "Not So" Kinetic Statue

Well, the prototype arrived. Aaaaannnd, it doesn't work
Not shapeways fault, it was just poor design on my part.
BUT, that's the purpose of prototyping right?

It looks good though, and i'm impressed with the WSF material in general.
for what feels like it's no heavier than if it were made out of paper, it's quite strong.



full write up on my blog. I don't know if linking to my blog breaks any rules here.
But, my daughter just woke up, and it seemed easier to post the link than copy and paste and relink every image with my 7mo. old daughter sitting on my lap trying to smash the keyboard :laughing:
write up here...

Aww, too bad it didn't work. I saw the WIP and was interested in how it would turn out. What went wrong?

In general there was too much "slop" because of the clearances added between the moving parts.
Probably the most obvious of which was the smallest gear. The tooth size was approximately the same size as the clearance So, it would never engage.
The clearance on all the other parts was too much for how thin the links were. They just kinda flopped and wobbled around instead of having smooth linear motion. I plan to re-vamp the design it with wider links to prevent the slop. But, I'm not sure how to tackle the little gear yet.
AND... I got slammed with a project at work so I haven't had much time since I received the printed model. But, i haven't given up!

Maybe have that 2nd gear be a separate piece that snaps in so you don't have to worry about clearance?