Gear cube

This cube made of gears is a great example of some of the really brilliant stuff coming out of the 3D printing scene; it's a phenomenon on Thingiverse, where the method for turning any solid shape into a geared wonderment has been generalized into a formula that can be applied to your 3D model-file.

Cube Gear (via Making Light)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: 3d printing • art • maker • video • youtube

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CH

That is so… so… I’m at loss for words here… cool isn’t quite it, neither awesome… awesomly cool? It’s a bit like watching Dark City when the houses start moving.
twency

I glanced at the thumbnail and thought “that looks kind of interesting but it’s misleading to call the parts ‘gears’ since they probably interlock in a way which prevents them from moving.”

Then I watched the video. Whoa.
cholten99

OMFG :-)

For those of us that don’t happen to have a 3D printer on our desk there would be /such/ a market for this.

ThinkGeek should start selling them at once!
- Gaucho85
  
  That’s the first thing I thought! Sign me up for one.
http://twitter.com/AlisdairC Alisdair Cameron

Hooray, some billed as having gears, which does indeed have movable gears, which work. Very nifty indeed. I’d buy it.(I’d buy a 3D printer, but for the cost)
Roderick Villanueva

Did anyone else expect Pinhead and his Cenobites to suddenlty appear?
- http://twitter.com/rvitelli Romeo Vitelli
  
  I was thinking the Borg telling us that resistance was futile.
http://www.theblacklaser.net/ Joe The Wizard

How long until we see gear versions of people’s World of Warcraft characters?
morcheeba

I met the guy who did the 3d-printed geared heart … it’s available for purchase: http://www.shapeways.com/model/29355/

similar in aluminum:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkhSKzNpgkw
Nadreck

Are you sure he didn’t just import these from Bizarro World?
HahTse

*want*
http://riotsquad.tv Nathaniel Akin

Fantastic. I had the same reaction as others here. ”That can’t really turn.. That’s really turning!”
bkuehner

The always-impressive Oskar van Deventer has made a similar form into a twisty puzzle:
http://www.mefferts.com/products/details.php?lang=en&category=13&id=492
To make it more interesting as a puzzle, his version can separate on any of the three axes, allowing the halves to scramble independently.
- Logolepsy
  
  See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkAlP9W0PM0 for a video demonstration of the 3d printed version that Oskar made before mass producing it with Mefferts.
zgz

Wow amazing. especially it was done 3 years ago, what can they do now?
abdi bro

amazing.. i want
Dave Johnson

For the record, this video shows the original papercraft model by Haruki Nakamura. The poster of this video just re-posted his original. See http://www.geocities.jp/kamikara1967/paperart.htm
sam.green

What’s truly remarkable about 3D printing is that it produces these objects in single shot with no need to assemble the various pieces together.. read more on my 3D printing blog at http://www.objetblog.com. Also, if you’re intrested in more 3D printed things of beauty and wonder check out the amazing Gomboc – http://blog.objet.com/2011/12/11/the-gomboc-worlds-first-self-righting-object-is-created-using-3d-printing/