Snake
Description
When I was little, I had a wooden snake just like this (but better). The cutouts allow it to bend. So I thought I'd print out something similar to see if it would work.
In PLA it is kinda stiff. A more flexible material would probably be better.
I made the snake short so that it would fit on a Makerbot, so it came out kinda chubby. It could actually be a little bit longer and still fit. At some point I will design and post a longer version for RapMan/Mendel sized beds. Or maybe a modular snake!
Oh and the STL has some weird stuff on the edges of the nose, but it doesn't seem to hurt anything when printing.
Dimensions: 80.2mm x 80.2mm x 11.3mm tall
(It is printed diagonally, the snake itself is around 110mm long)
EDIT (Feb 11, 2011)
I've included an alternate file, SnakeThin.STL. This version has a thinner core that should be only a single layer thick. It ends up being much more flexible. Skeinforge kept giving me trouble with the core so I scaled up the model slightly.
SnakeThin dimensions: 84mm x 84mm x 11.7mm tall
Instructions
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I'll be honest -- this is one of the best models to print on thingiverse. I have seen many many people at MakerBot events and conferences stay for an entire print of this object. They get all mesmerized, which I guess is a magic property of snakes, right?
Thank you, that is a wonderful compliment! I am happy that people enjoy watching it print, the square wave pattern is really fun! And luckily it does print pretty fast.
Most of the other things I've designed are really fragile, so I really like that the snake is meant to be bent and played with. I'm curious if anyone has broken one by bending it too far. Mine are PLA so pretty brittle, but I imagine they are pretty durable in ABS?
Cut it down the spine and print two halves. Assemble them together with a cloth backbone core and goriila glue.. Great Flexi snake!!
Modular or parametric would be best. Those wooden snakes never had wooden cores though. It was always a bunch of wooden ribs attached to a piece of fabric or hinged together. That was what allowed them to move so freely.
More from Zomboe
Had quite a few issues getting the first layer down on my printbot using slic3r and pronterface. My solution was to use the first layer speed setting and drop it to 5% of normal. This took about 1/2 of the printing time but is created a much better base to work off and the ribs came out amazing as a result.