iPhone Gear Case
Description
This is an iPhone 4/4s case with moving gears on the back. It clips onto my phone perfectly with no wiggle room, and is still pretty easy to take off.
I altered the original rivets to make them easier to print, and scaled the main case a little bit for a better fit. Other than that, only part orientations have been changed.
The source files can be found at the following links.
instructables.com/id/IPhone-Cover-for-Engineers/
grabcad.com/library/iphone-cover-for-engineers
Instructions
2. Print the gears. The first number in each gear name is the number of teeth, and the final number is how many you need. Use whichever layer height works best for your printer, but I recommend single walls so that there is room for some fill, making the gears stronger. I printed them with three walls the first time and it left many spaces between the perimeters that were too small to fill.
3. Print the rivets. I recommend using single walls, and low layer heights to give extra strength. I would also print slowly with z lift.
4. Clean up all of the parts with an sharp knife, and some 220 grit sandpaper. Test fit all of the gears. When you're satisfied with the fit push the rivet in place.
5. After you are completely happy with the case, make sure the rivets are pushed in securely, then flip the case over so you can see the holes for the rivets. Put a dab of thick CA glue on each rivet to make sure they don't fall out. Thinner glue may leak through and lock the gears in place.
6. Wait for the glue to dry, then snap your phone in place and enjoy!
You need to shave a little bit of material away around the silencing slider if you have the iPhone 4s
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One question: how did you get the support material off the geared side of the case? I've just printed one and sandpaper just doesnt seem to be enough. Short of Dremelling (verb?) the hell out of it, I have no idea what to do next.
Hi Guy's, I'm glad you're enjoying my iPhone cover design.
My iPhone 5 version is up at http://www.shapeways.com/shops... just for a little while before I release the model to the masses.
Cheers!
Danny
Hi,
I have a little problem when im printing the iphones covers.
The 80% of the printing is ok, but when the printer reach the last part that is closing the upper holder lips of the case, since there is no support it falls down.
Any tips?
Thanks
If you have a fan blowing on it usually it will print 1 or 2 bad layers with strings and then start to solidify. I'm about to finish designing a new version of this case that gets rid of the problem by making those lips beveled. My card holder case uses this and works great.
This is the second case i printed, that was way too small. granted i didnt clean it out that well, it still doesnt look like it will fit at all. Replicator 2, ABS, why do i have to scale up when i print cases? iPhone 4 AT&T...
any help appreciated.
It can be because of shrinking as the print cools, or because your steps per mm are off in your firmware. My prints usually shrink between 1 and 2 percent after cooling. It would be strange for this case to be off though, because I have already scaled the original to compensate for my shrinking. Loose belts can also make your prints appear to be smaller than they should be.
Is there one for iphone 5? I am a beginner and I don't really know how. If anyone has an idea for how I can do it just let me know.
Hello QuentinT. Sorry to contact you this way, but I was wondering if you'd be willing to do a talk or videochat to the Freeside Atlanta hackerspace during our 3D design and Printing workshop (February 9th). You have published a very popular iPhone case and we would love to hear more about your design process. Hit me up off list if you are interested; sorry if I'm being a bother.
I inverted the case and still printed with support and that gave me a smoother surface for the gears to turn on.
I also reduced the gear sizes by 1% to get them to mesh better.
The
axles were not very strong so I printed small 1mm thick washers with a
1.6mm hole and used small pieces of filament through them superglued in
to make strong pins. It works really well.
Hi,
I have problems to remove the support of the main case. Could you post the original files, so that i can modify it, and print it in 2 halfs and glue them with acetone?!
Thanks in advance
wasty
sorry I just saw this, but I actually didn't make the originals to this case, so the STLs are the best I have. If you take a look at my new case, I made all of the parts myself, and it is now printable without support. Check it out here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thi...
Pretty cool. I would put the gears inside the case and mergeit with my steampunk case (<iframe frameborder="0" height="453" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://tinkercad.com/embed/3akv9p4v8xe?editbtn=1" width="725"></iframe>).
Maybe I will do that !
Really really stupid question... maybe i missed it in the description....
Is this for an iPhone 4 or 5? I would love to print one for my sisters phone.
Got to get some Android love up in here. My Galaxy Nexus is feeling left out.
This is really cool, I would invert it and put the gears inside the case and add some more skeletal watch style windows.
I like them on the outside better because it is easier to continuously spin the gears, which is good fun. I thought about putting the gears on the inside and having the big gear surrounded by plastic and having no center axle, leaving space for you to rotate it 360 degrees, but I thought that would leave more opportunity for binding in the gears.
I would LOVE an iPhone5 version. It would be the thing I would ask Santa for, if I didn't have to wait a whole nother year to do it.
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I turned mine over, as removing the support from the inside which is about 8mm thick was much easier and the finish is not important. The surface for the gears came out perfect.