Hey! This thing is still a Work in Progress.
Files, instructions, and other stuff might change!
Gecko Foot Prototype
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Published on August 12, 2012
Description
Based on the research of Robert Full, this tiny sheet of plastic has even tinier hairs. Not tested yet, but based on proven research. A gecko's foot uses microscopic hairs to stick to surfaces by creating a kind of a super friction. This object does the same thing, only on a smaller scale. This sheet of plastic has 224 tiny spires, and is only a few square millimeters.
Instructions
Use a Replicator for this. For more friction, it is best to scale it down by .5 and make the layer height .01. THis is just for better sticking though. Will be able to print and test anywhere in between 4 and 6 weeks. I promise I will test it, but until then, try printing it yourself.
License
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Unfortunately you wont be able to print this with a replicator or any "cheap" printer that I know of. The nozzle diameter of most of the 3D printers whose results you see uploaded to this site are more than 0.3mm. So the prints are made up of 0.3mm wide blobs that are positioned with 0.1mm accuracy. The gecko hairs in your model are far to fine to be printed. According to wiki they need to be 0.2 micrometers which is 0.0002mm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
Which is a shame as that would be a very very cool thing to print. Wall mounts that don't require glue or screws! :)
There is a DLP resin printer that's cheap to make but expensive to run that has very good accuracy...
http://hackaday.com/2012/04/05...
jector/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
But still not good enough for your gecko idea.
It won't be as small or strong as a gecko's foot, but smaller than previous attempts.
Way ahead of you. I scaled it up slightly, so that the replicator can handle it, but it is still only about 1.5 square millimeters, and has 256 spires.