by Woodsbot
Inspired by all the other great flexible things out there, like Muzz64's Fish Fossilz, Various incarnations of FlexiRex and others I wanted to try my hand at making a fun flexible thing.
This model can be scaled up but I don't recommend scaling it down much if at all; the uploaded STL is actually an 80% scale of the original, since I was experimenting with how small it could go and still be strong enough for my tastes.
Printer Brand:
Prusa
Printer:
Rafts:
No
Supports:
No
Resolution:
0.2mm
Infill:
20%
Notes:
I use 2 shells/outlines, and 4 top and bottom layers when using 20% infill.
Making the thing
To create the Moose I used Fusion360, inserted a moose sketch on a canvas and traced a Moose using splines; though I could have imported an SVG I felt like doing it the long way for practice using splines in other designs. But that did mean I screwed things up many, many times.
My initial attempts at links worked okay, following the advice of MathGrrl on in place hinges used on her folding objects. But DrLex's FlexRex with stronger links had a great section on stronger links that was just what I was looking for. While I didn't follow it exactly, for all intents and purposes it's that hinge design. and it's worked out well - it's still possible to break the sections apart, but it doesn't happen with typical play.
With the improved hinges in place, I modified my moose outline a bit so he would stand up properly when printed... the early attempts did a nose dive because there was too much material in the head.
