"The Morph" - Expanding Kinetic Sphere

Expanding Kinetic Sphere

Camer across a video somewhere a little while ago about a morphing kinetic sphere and liked the challenge of replicated the design myself. 

After some searching around, this model is an Octahedron that can be expanded into Cuboctahedron by twisting it the sides. 

As a disclaimer, there is a similar model that was posted to Printables 2 years ago, no, this is not that model. I designed this version from scratch in solidworks and spent quite some time figuring out the angles and getting the tolerance right. After various test prints I finally have a model that works. 

Please note, the joint connections are intended to be a tight press fit insert in order to keep the pieces together during rotation and take a little bit of force to snap into place. Due to this, it is NOT recommended to use filaments like Matte or Silk PLA as they tend to have very poor layer adhesion and will snap either during assembly or during operation. At minimum I recommend using regular Bambu PLA, or better yet, PETG. 

The Print Profile includes 12 Joint pieces as well as 8 face pieces (2 plates of 4 pieces for  2-color print). 

For assembly, start by first attaching 2 same color face using 1 joint piece, followed by attaching the other 2 color faces to create a “square” of 4 total face pieces. Proceed by connecting the necessary joint pieces and attaching 1 face at a time until you have completed the sphere. 

Thank you for visiting my page and taking the time to print my models. Your support is truly appreciated. I never expected to have so many people following me and fueling my passion for creating the models that I create!