The IDEA

Using the opera money that we have been collecting ( we sing at the Children's Chorus at the Met Opera ) -- we finally collected enough money to buy a Makerbot. It is a 3D printer, and my brother and I have been able to design a lot of cool stuff.   I use Blender ( which you can download for free), and try to make designs in my head become real. Here are some of the designs I have done.

This is a griffin that I designed. It was a little difficult to print because the overhang was too wide. I had to add little rods so the plastic could anchor itself.


The next things I did are :

The sword of Awesomeness. This sword I made for my LEGO knights. The ones that they sell are not very detailed - nor very cool. So I made this Flambard sword.

Joints

I like to sculpt. I like studying Leonardo da Vinci's Anatomy book - because I see all the muscles and joints in them. I like to draw too.

Using Blender, I tried to study all the joints of the human body. I like the idea of having objects move because of some simple mechanical parts. This is my rendering of the proportions of the human body and the joints.

Modular Joints for Toys

I have always liked the idea of making my own toys. This is why i really wanted to get a 3D printer.

One day, I was sculpting bodies from clay, and I wished that after it dried, the joints could still move. I think this will make hand-made toys really cool.

So I thought, why not print joints from my Makerbot ? Then I can use the joints, build clay around it, and then allow the toys to move ! I started designing the joints. These are some of my first thoughts.

From the side -- the system is made of only three modular parts so it is easy to mass produce on my Makerbot. There are 2 sizes for the ball and c joints, and 2 lengths of the rods. I calculated Da Vinci's proportions so that they can more or less look like the human body.

When locked in together - it will look like this.

Once you can use these modular parts, it will be easy to put details in the clay and allow the toys to move.