A simple 3D scorpion I designed for Printable's Jointed Figures contest. It has 45 fully functional joints and can bend into hundreds of positions.
Tips:
— The ball joints may be hard to snap in. Use a pair of needle-nose pliers if you need to apply extra pressure.
— If a part is too large, use a file or knife to whittle down the excess plastic.
— If the print turns out smaller than expected, simply use glue (hot glue, superglue, etc.) to bond the pieces together.
Building Instructions:
Print the parts
Here are the parts in the recommended order of printing:
First, print the stinger (stinger.stl). Please note that it requires supports, so make sure they are enabled when you slice it. Also, If you think that the stinger is too long, you can shorten it by simply not using one snap-coupling link of it.
Next, print the ball joints (leg-ball-joints.stl, stinger-ball-joint.stl, and claw-ball-joints.stl). Print two sets of the leg ball joints. (You will need 8 in total). The other joints have no special requirements.
Next, print the (scorpion-body.stl). This model does require supports and may take some time to complete.
Now, print the legs (leg-1.stl, leg-2.stl, leg-3.stl, and leg-4.stl). You need to print two sets of each of these.
Lastly, print the claws (claw.stl). You will two print two sets of the claw pieces. The claws do require supports.
Assemble the Scorpion
First, assemble the legs by snapping together the pieces from each leg file (leg-1.stl, leg-2.stl, etc.) and inserting each finished leg into a leg ball joint (leg-ball-joints.stl):
Now, build the stinger and claws also be snapping the pieces from each file. Insert them into their allotted ball joints as well.
Slide the ball joint pieces into the main body. If a part is too small or large (this is not because of my design, but due to print shrinkage or miscalibration!), follow the directions from the tips below.
If a part is too large, use a file or knife to whittle down the excess plastic.
If a part is to small, you can hot glue it or superglue it onto the body.
Optionally, if you don't have the colors of filament that you want, you can always paint the assembled model to make it look more realistic.
Other photos:
All parts:
Be sure to upload makes of your finished models. Any feedback is appreciated. Enjoy!
Best_codes
