March 18, 2025
Description
I want to make the design process of my FlexiDinos as transparent as possible, so I'll upload every test print here. I'll treat it like a design diary. I hope you'll enjoy following my process here. To see the last update you'll have to scroll all the way down.
I just uploaded the first 2 versions of the joints. I started from scratch for the third time and think this joint might work. It's designed to rotate around two axis. It took me a long time to come up with this concept and I hope it was worth the wait. We'll see.
As you can see, it can collapse in on itself and this will allow me to design the dinosaur lying on its back. I'll try to cover the flanks of the joint to hide the very large gap that results from my fear of overhangs and bridges. I'm also going to add some beveled edges to that area, which should also close that gap a bit.
The next step will be to add some weight to the body and connect some of these joints to create a longer segment. In the end, it should have enough weight in the head and tail to keep it standing on its feet and not collapse in the wrong direction (up) and bend its spine like a U-shape.
Here are two new files: v21 is a new take on the joint with a lot of the clerance (Clarence) removed for it to fit snugly and still be able to move. This took me a lot longer than I thought as I have to design it with the additional axis in mind after bending the parts. There were a lot of iterations where parts ended up stuck together and other ones where they didn't move after extruding the sides, which turned to be another tough nut to crack. But with some pfushing around it turned out well I guess. So here you go: v28 is still in my printer but I'm quite sure it works as I just modded some details from v27 and duplicated it to have two joints. I guess this will be the setup I'll use to carve the Ankylosaurus out of. Or maybe it has been a huge waste of time and I'll have to start anew.
For documentation I'll drop all the test prints as gcode, printing these would just be a waste of filament, but maybe some of you want to take a look at them. I'll upload all tested and useful files as 3mf from now on. I also reduced the size of the models in fusion, I did this in the slicer until today but got too lazy to do the resizing every time I loaded the model in the slicer. I've also switched to my new mini+ for prototyping, which makes my life much easier.
Let me know if you have any questions or inputs! Happy printing!
The target group at the playground today said it looks like a fish. But they're kids, and what do they know, right? Dirty brats!
At the adult end of the scale, it really does look like a fish, and I'll have to take care of that, but making changes to the design is easy compared to the task I finished last night. Behold! The hinges work! Eureka!
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Thorns everywhere! HA! This should do the trick. Eyes will definitely help too. So consider this a very rough sketch that's at least in the shape of something (fish). /spoiler alert
Compared to the first prototype (see picture →) of Ginko it's a big improvement I guess.
The hinges are done and I am very surprised that they turned out so well. The new collapsible hinges do what they were designed to do. But they're huge and impossible to tweak without a complete rebuild, so I'm very inflexible on the design of those two joints. I'll have to live with that, and I'm glad it worked. I wasn't sure it would, and it took me two or three weeks to come up with the design, so I'm excited about how it all turned out.
The tail is a different story. This time I managed to get everything right (after 5 FlexiDino models so far it was time) and the hinges are super tight. They move smoothly and snap into each other, which is very nice to see, but I'm wondering if they might not be wobbly enough. I'd love to hear your feedback on this, so if you get one printed, please let me know. I'll have a vote for my club members on how to handle this in the next few days, once you've all had a chance to test the model for yourself.
I usually have something to print that looks like a dinosaur around version 20 or so. Look at the version number on this one! And this is the third time I started from scratch, so there would be a few more iterations to add. But now I'm back in the comfort zone and can design. BOOORING!
I hope to be able to post an update soon, so stay tuned and happy printing!
We're getting closer to what the beast is supposed to look like. It's scaled and still works, which surprises me since I printed it with an .8 nozzle and it's only 9 cm long. Also, I'm out of filament and have to order more. So at the moment there is only matte black, as the spool of silver I got for my birthday from a friend turned out to have been stored opened in a very moldy basement for a few years and didn't work quite as expected (it also gave off some very strange fumes when I tried to print it). I'm going to order some new stuff right after I hit publish.
I want to take back what I wrote in the last update above. Designing this FlexiDino is a lot of fun. It takes time, but I'm much more routine when I don't have to think about every decision I make for hours or even days before I can implement it. There are still some important things to do, so I'll summarize the tasks for the next iteration(s)
So I hope you enjoy the ride. I'll update as soon as there's any news. As always, if you want to give me input on the designs, please feel free to write me! Thanks for your support and have fun printing!
I've added a mouth. That usually means it's entering the final stages. Overall, there's still some tweaking to be done, but I'm pretty happy with how the model is coming along. I found a way to keep the wiggle and still close the gap a bit. See the picture →.
Maybe I'll add this element to some of the other segments. On the next one, it'll look like butt cheeks, which someone might find funny.
I tried to find a solution for the forehead overhangs/bridge, but it didn't work out as I had hoped. Especially with the horn groves, it's becoming quite a mess in that area and I need to find a solution for that.
It might have something to do with the .8 nozzle I'm currently printing with, as I'm an impatient dinophile and want to see the results as soon as possible. I'll change it when I get back to my office where I have an expensive .4 nozzle lying around.
The spikes on the flanks were way too sharp. I managed to disarm them a bit, but will have to do some more work on them as they are still too dangerous for my taste. I already have an idea on how to accomplish this, but didn't get to implement it last night (as predicted, it's the "I can't go to sleep until the last print is done at 2am" phase of the design process).
To make things more visible in the photos, I ordered some new filaments that should arrive soon.
The next steps will be
Just a quick update: model's almost ready. I need to fix the flanks as they don't close properly. I've added a brim-version as the head/horns don't have enough surface to keep sticking to the bed when printed in PLA. The version without brim works fine with PETG though.
I already had two photo shoots and am currently editing the pictures. I'll release the finished model as a separate upload, as I don't think my club members will get an update when it's done. This will also include some "assembly instructions", which will mainly be an explanation of how to get the model to work without squeezing your fingers in the gaps (this happened to me twice, so be careful when squeezing the first two joints). The inserts in the flanks work, I've also added a little more wiggle room in the tail joints to match the wiggle of the first two joints. There may be some fine-tuning in the next few days, but I think the Ankylosaurus is done for now. (Edit: I removed the extra slack in the tail, it didn't work as expected and I had problems with the connectors afterwards.)
Oh, I almost forgot, the last Schwanzglied (= tail joint, but the German word is hilarious and needs to be used as often as possible) needs some tweaking as it is getting very thin. I'll have to take a look at that. These little tasks tend to become impossible so late in the design process as there is very little space to work with, so wish me luck!
I can't stress this enough, so I'm going to write it down here: FlexiDinos are in no way suitable for small children. Parts can break off and leave sharp edges, so make sure your children are old enough to know what they're doing before letting them play with FlexiDinos!
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AndreasJoskaSutanto
