MakerBot Industries

Flying Maple Seed Model by qharley

This Maple Seed Helicopter design race was one of the swiftest little challenges we’ve run.  There were four entries tagged with “mapleseed”, not counting my own contribution.  Each submission added an interesting twist, but my favorite variation was the hook added to the heavy end of the seed by Stefan so that it could be shot into the air via a rubber band or slingshot.  Of the entries,qharley’s contribution went through a second iteration, was actually printed, and he posted his results.

At the time I’m writing this, Stefan’s entry received 8 likes + 0 comments¹ and qharley’s had 3 likes + 5 comments.  qharley might have a slight edge due to the secondary iteration of the same essential design garnering an additional 2 likes, but I feel quite comfortable calling this one a well-deserved tie.

Thanks again to @mostley for the idea for this challenge and all of the participants.  If anyone has an idea for a cool design challenge or design race, please leave a comment or e-mail me through Thingiverse or this website.

Maple Seed Experiment by Stefan

This is a maple seed concept I worked on last fall. I couldn't quite get my machine to print one perfectly. The super thin blade was problematic for my cupcake and settings. The hook is for a rubber band launch. I was hoping for a slingshot style launch into the blue with a slow flutter back to earth. It launches nicely, but only spins and falls slowly about half the time. It needs to be optimized for transition to spinning descent.

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Flying Mapleseed model by qharley

So, the other thing was a dart. Very purposeful and straight downwards movement on that thing. This one flies well, but I'll see if I can work out the CAD files for it. It was quite literally derived from the Free falling design. I changed it by hand until it worked. I have no idea if something like this is even printable with no support, and even so - the support may be stronger than the fragile wing. I will give the tip a flat foot to stand on. Printing vertically may be the only way forward.

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1. Not counting my own, here [↩]

The humble maple seed

A few days ago @mostley aka Sven H. suggested another design challenge – designing a “maple leaf copter.” ¹  For those of you who haven’t seen one, a maple seed has a long thin wing-like structure.  As the seeds fall, they spin rapidly.  The better the particular seed is balanced, the slower it falls and the faster it spins.  While there are some artificial models, such as this origami version, a 3D printable version would make an incredible quick-printing demonstration piece and all-around super cool toy.  Some of these links, especially this discussion forum with pictures and diagrams or perhaps a review of the origami model, might help you design your own.

So, to everyone who reads this blog…  I hereby challenge you to a “maple seed copter” design race.  All you have to do is design and upload a printable maple seed-inspired copter to Thingiverse and tag it with “mapleseed.”  There’s no prize money on this one, just bragging rights, so it’s open to everyone, enter as many times as you like, and make something awesome!  The winning design, determined by the number of likes + comments, will be announced Monday morning on the blog.  Good luck!

(Although, if are motivated by money, the $50.00 prize for the disc shooter challenge is still up for grabs!)

1. Photo courtesy of Armand Agasi [↩]

Drag(on) Racing

Last night Bre asked me if I wanted to have a design race.  Yes, yes I do. ¹  The rules he proposed were:

1. An agreed upon common word or theme
2. 25 minutes to upload the design to Thingiverse

Since he made up the rules, I got to choose the topic.  Here there would be DRAGONS!

And 24 minutes later, Thingiverse was two dragon designs richer with Bre’s Dragon Blocks and my Dragon design.

So, help us out – which design would you choose?

1. Apparently had Bre forgotten what happened the last time someone challenged me.  Poor poor laser dinosaur… [↩]