Trilobite articulatum
Description
Unlike the fossil ones you see in museums, you can have fun flexing and rolling this trilobite up - bit like a woodlouse (or pill bug.) It makes a satisfying clacking noise if you ripple the segments.
You can make baby trilobites by using just the smaller body sections. Whole trilobite families, or even armies, can be yours for the printing.
This creature is very inquisitive and can often be seen peering over people's monitors or shoulders.
Jasonwebb has done a short video (with sound) showing it moving vimeo.com/47692125 and Busybotz has kindly included it in one of his excellent 3D printing videos youtube.com/watch?v=LGNg37Fc584 (starts at ~3:08) and 3dprintblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/3d-printed-parts-assembled-and.html (starts at ~1:45).
I'm thinking about other designs of body (with spikes), head (more plate-like, and with more spines) and tail (spikes, and more spikes). Comura looks fun en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WLA_hmns_Trilobite_Comura_sp.jpg
If you're interested in trilobites, Richard Fortey's book "Trilobite! - eyewitness to Evolution" ( amazon.co.uk/dp/0006551386 ) is a great read; and I found trilobites.info/ fascinating, especially the eyes section trilobites.info/eyes.htm
I've included a photo of the fossil trilobite that gave me the idea to make a stylised, flexible version.
Instructions
It's probably best to print as scaled in the STLs - which gives a width of ~8cm and a total assembled length of ~17cm. You can print smaller and larger, but the joints may need a little fettling.
Note: Different colours of plastic might give loser/tighter joints - on our replicator, ABS orange/white/black were fine, ABS pink was looser but held together.
To assemble:
Let the parts cool down; then starting with the tail and one set of body parts, clip in the smallest body part, then the next biggest, etc... Repeat with the second set of body parts in reverse order (i.e. biggest to smallest), and finally the head. If you want to swap them around, the parts should unclip (carefully).
Note: I've also included the eight individual body parts in a ZIP; and STEP and Parasolid versions of the whole trilobite (just in case someone wants to add more spines or fiddle.) NB the STLs are 1.5x scaled up from the other models.
For laird, I've also added just the peg-and-socket part - ready for exciting spikes and other paraphernalia to be added... The curved surface is the top.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Printed this a Replicator 2 (red PLA, 0.1mm layerthickness, 20% infill, 2 extra shell).
The print looks excellent but are way to loose to stick together at all :(
Hi agepbiz.
I printed on a Replicator 1 in ABS with 0.27 layer height - which may have made the parts slightly oversized and he joints tighter.
You could try imitation's excellent suggestion of using a hairdryer to soften the socket (which the peg goes into) and squeeze it a little with pliers. Or, there's Jorlack's suggestion of drilling holes and threading an elastic band through.
Sorry, I really must get this redesigned in OpenSCAD and Customizer.
Good luck.
Thanks for the great design!
One issue i ran into was that the connectors were a bit too loose, to the point that two of the segments would fall apart. Heating it up with a hair dryer and making it a bit tighter was pretty easy, though!
one of the coolest thingiverse items I have seen! Awesome work
I have tried to print this twice and still can't seem to get the pieces to snap together. However for anyone else with this problem (I'm sure there are a few). I found that if I drill a hole through the center of each piece I can feed a rubber band along the "spine" and that holds it together well enough. I'll finish one like this and post it soon.
Awesome project I hope I can get my printer tuned enough in the future to print it right.
I love your idea of adding holes for an elastic band - I should modify the original parts to add this.
Funnily enough, Rosie
&
amp; I printed a pink
&
amp; black one yesterday (see Made One photo). The black sections are fine, the pink ones are lose. We printed the pink ones first and assembled them while still hot, the black ones were done when they'd cooled down.
Maybe the different colours print to slightly different sizes
&
amp; stiffnesses; I'd guess that assembling while the parts are cold is safest.
Good luck with the printing and thanks for the suggestion.
Really fantastic model, great job!
I liked it so much it's printed at 200% sized and he maxed out my print area.
I do like to think they were originally shocking Pink and Gold in the wild ;) what a sight!
This makes a wonderful toy. It is very flexible and durable. Easy to print and assemble. The only printing issue I had was the points on the tail are thin and easily snap off. I like the alternating color idea, and also printed one in silver and blue.
I knew this would be articulated, but I didn't realize that each of the body sections are completely separated from each other! As it printed I saw how the balls and sockets fit together, and was very pleasantly surprised at how fun this model is to play with :) Here's a video I made of the motion and sound, in case anyone wants to see it in action: https://vimeo.com/47692125
Oh no. Where's the photo of the huge (2.1x) Trilobite gone? It was an amazing print...
I'm totally obsessed with these. They are popping up all over the botcave.
Printed one of these, unfortunately the parts don't snap together so well as they are very very loose. I guess it must be a problem on my machine (belt backlash?). Otherwise amazing! Will tighten the belts and try again, perhaps at twice the size to mitigate backlash further.
Nice work!
This thing is begging me for a hexapod robotics implant. Awesome model!
OMG! This is wonderful... definitely gonna print some of these. What layer height did you use?
Smwombat - I've just seen your Trilobite 3D scan, http://www.thingiverse.com/thi... - very neat. Did you scan any other trilobites?
I think it was the ReplicatorG default of 0.27mm; although it's currently set to 0.25mm.
Happy printing.
This is awesome!
Printed it - amazing design! I love the way the segments snap together, with just the right amount of snap, friction and range of motion. You can do a 'wave' down the body that reminds me of those segmented snake toys we used to play with as kids!
One tricky part, though - the 'tail' prints with vertical horns that come out a bit wobbly, at least with acceleration, though a little acetone bonded them OK. I might try printing them at a slower speed to see if they come out stronger.
But now what I really want to do is design new parts to sna
p with these! Perhaps 'pointy' body segments?
License
Is there any chance that those of us without access to a printer can purchase a pre-made one of these from you?
---Prem
I suppose Ponoko is one option, but your best bet is to contact the Makerbot Store, who were selling them:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/b...
http://www.popsci.com/diy/arti...
(We're in the UK and posting to Florida would be slow and probably expensive.)