8-Leaf Fully Printable Iris Box

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Published on May 20, 2012
This thing was Featured on May 20, 2012

Description

Ever wonder why all the iris boxes on Thingiverse have five leaves?

With six or more leaves, the leaves have to overlap each other when the box is opened. That requires a more complex leaf shape, but also opens up some interesting design possibilities.

This 8-leaf iris box can be printed with the upper and lower parts of the leaves in contrasting colors. When the box is closed only the top part of the leaves are visible. As the box is opened the bottom piece is exposed. I printed this with black tops and yellow bottoms, and the effect in the pictures is striking.

This model requires no screws or other hardware, though some glue may be needed to hold the two parts of the leaves together depending on the tolerances of your printer. All parts print without support.

Instructions

1. Print one copy of each STL file. The bottom pieces of the leaves will only be visible when the box is open, so choose your colors accordingly.

2. Place the mechanism ring on top of the base. It should rotate freely.

3. Snap each of the leaf bottoms into one of the holes in the base, such that the arm engages with the slot in the mechanism ring.

4. Attach a leaf top to each leaf bottom. Depending on the tolerances of your printer you may need a drop of glue to hold it in place, or it may just snap together.
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When I slice the bottom leaf file, The conical tips won't generate, it just ends where the last flat layer is on the pin. Any idea why

I just downloaded the STL and checked it with Netfabb. It didn't find any problems, and the file looks OK to me. What exactly is happening?

Any chance of getting source files? On a huxley the base is unprintable, so I'd like to make a stouter one (say 70mm high).

The source files are in ViaCAD, which not many people use. They may not be useful to you, but I'm happy to post them if they are.

You can also scale the whole model down by 25% or so. Since it is fully printable, the holes, pins, etc., will still fit properly.

Very nice. Thanks for posting.

lovely all the high number irises I seen have used flexable leaves never thought of useing a steped shap to slide over the next one.

I know what I'm going to be printing tomorrow!