Want to make something a bit BIGGER than your regular 3d prints? This geodesic sphere is super easy and fun to build!

Just print 12 of the 5-way connectors and 30 of the 6-way connectors, then connect it all up using straws! No glue, screws, support, or any other materials are needed. The result is a beautiful, solid 2v geodesic sphere with 42 vertices and 80 triangles. There are 120 struts, which can be made from 60 straws for a small sphere or 120 straws for a big one.

I recommend using paper straws, like these that I bought from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JR64BSK/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

Assembly Instructions

• Calculate your strut sizes and cut your straws.
  • If your straws are 197mm like those linked above, then I recommend:
    • Small sphere: use 60 straws, each cut once to create 93mm short strut and a 104mm long strut
    • Large sphere: use 60 full length straws as your long struts, and 60 straws cut to 176mm as your short struts
  • If your straws are a different length, just make sure your struts obey the equation (LONG - 12)/(SHORT - 12) = 927/820. This is because the connectors add 6mm to each side of each strut.
• Print a test piece to check straw fit.
  • Ideally it takes significant force to push the straw on so that it can hold some tension (after all, geodesics are a tensegrity structure!). If it's too tight though and you cant slide the straw all the way on, raise PLUG_CLEARANCE in the SCAD file to a less negative value (and vice versa if too loose).
• Print 12x 5-way connectors and 30x 6-way connectors. No support is needed, but add a brim if you have problems with adhesion to the bed.
• Attach all the short straws to the 5-way connectors
• Build the rest of the sphere using this simple rule: "short straws connect to short straws". This means each short strut on each 5-way piece will have a 6-way connector on the end, with another short strut coming off the directly opposing (in-line) side of the connector. The other 4 plugs on the 6-way connector will each get a long-strut (you can think of the long-struts as forming the sides of the pentagons surrounding the 5-way connectors)

I'm working on some very cool related Things that hopefully I'll be posting soon!