I have been printing a model of the frame of my track car an Ariel Atom 2. On the latest installment, of two, I tried to create a spring printed in WSF to hold energy. Yeah, kind of a goofy goal. In the first print I had some success getting it to print with rolling wheels (OK, that was very easy), suspension and steering. This is a 1/24th scale model so the gaps required by the printing being 0.5 mm equate to 12 mm real which is a chunk as it multiplies across the suspension and steering. Anyway I changed the suspension from the first print to more solid mountings to avoid the numerous "gaps". the shocks did work on the first print, but, there was way too much joint slop to use them. The second print does have nicely working suspension although the right rear shock seems to still be full of powder. Of course all of the wheels need to be broken free of the powder on arrival.
The spring that was supposed to store energy does work, ... actually a little too well. The load design failed as the two shafts need more support or support between themselves, so, basically you have to load the system by hand turning the big gear. It is already fighting you hard before it ever reach the stop and I am afraid to turn it that far yet. There is no shortage of turning force it is giving back though. The wobbly driving shaft makes it not transmit though it just sits in binding. I can make the next one work, I have know doubt of that. WSF is very tough!
Of course I know I could print this as a snap together, but, I am quite focused upon printing fully functional right out of the zip lock bag. I have suspension and rolling, I am fairly sure I can get the spring system to work, now I have to figure steering out as it is more of a direction suggestion system at the moment.
A quick synopsis of how I got here:
3D scan of the car with a Leica 6200 phased based scanner. Modeled the frame in a software package called Cyclone and imported it into Inventor. This was actually done quite a while ago. Simple YouTube vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MngPa7EJ14U
I then scaled the frame 0.041666666666666666666666 to convert it to 1/24 scale and make it 3D printable.
Test mule no. 1.
This had a few issues that lead to the next iteration that I received today.
Test mule no. 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-lcgn1THKQ
I guess there is no real point to my post other than WSF is flexible and you can print to have working stuff taking advantage of that flexibility. Just real a very cool material.