yes that fits the bill nicely, how did you manage that? loft command?
mine didn’t come out like that at all 
Not sure I get the point of a slow twist though.
It’s not going to be enough to cancel out any shading. In fact, it might make the shading more obvious by creating a spiral pattern around the blade.
1 Like
It’s a loft command with a centerline, then a shell command to make it hollow.
1 Like
What we need is a strip with both regular LEDs AND the side-lighting LEDs on it, and then build a 3-strip blade out of those… 
2 Likes
ha ha i see your opting for the exuberant current draw again.
in theory though with the light spread of each pixel being 140 degrees we would have a 5 degree overlap so shadowing would be reduced or minimal
The helical twist would be to reduce how obvious the “shadow effect” is on the blade, since only part of the edge would be facing anyone looking the blade. It would also reduce the stress on the strips during dueling, since you distribute the asymmetrical flexibility of the strips around the axis.
I happen to think that a shadow that is parallel to the blade is easy for the eye to explain away as a result of the blade being shiny, but a shadow that curves around the blade is not going to be nearly as easy for the eye to explain away. I could be entirely wrong I suppose, and until we try it, it will be hard to know for certain.
3 Likes
just printed a quick test piece (non twisted) with 0.8mm wall thickness.
I’m running 0.4mm nozzle and it came out really well.
as for flex i did a basic test and got a rough deflection of 3 -4 mm across the 100mm length.
should be about right for the blade length?
Wow that was fast! This is just the straight triangle right?
I’m wondering about the best way to attach them end-to-end. Just doing a butt-splice is going to break. Maybe a triangular plug that can be glued into the inside of the spacers?
1 Like
yep that was what i was working on, just a simple plug and glue job
First test pieces off the press and mainly just playing with fit and flex.
Simple plug joiner and difference between 1.3mm and 0.8mm wall thickness.
Twisted version on the printer.
Sweet! Those turned out really good. Are you gonna go with 0.8 or 1 mm for the final versions?
I’m worried about the twisted versions breaking between layers…since they have to be printed vertically?
i think I’ll go with 0.8mm as it offers a good amount of flex but not too much to worry about the stresses on the strips.
i know what you mean with layer adhesion, but if you’ve got you settings right it doesn’t pose as much of a problem as what you think.
i have printed fully functional hilts and since I’ve dialled in my settings I’ve not has any breakages.
real world testing saw my kids swinging it around much harder than i would have with some collisions with walls etc and even they did not break it.
as much as it would be cool to have the twisted version the print time is much longer than the straight version.
28 mins as opposed to 46 mins.
1 Like
This was an experiment I did to see how thin a wall i could print a blade holder without breaking.
Coming in at a whopping 1.3mm wall thickness.
So I gave it to my product testing team to put it through its paces.
it survived by the way.
1 Like
I can’t get layer adhesion to the level that you can, apparently…thin parts like that for me would snap super easy. That being said, I do know nozzle size plays a big factor in layer adhesion, so maybe I should move up from a .25 nozzle.
That could be a factor, I tend to print PLA at 205 degrees and that did the trick for me. I was printing at 190 degrees before.
Print just finished for the twisted version.
This would look super cool if the whole blade was like this
1 Like
So after all my big talk I just broke it on a flex test
i think as you predicted the super thin walls are just not enough to hold up.
maybe if i print one at 0.2mm layers instead of 0.1mm it might be better.
1 Like
Well, it might not be too bad if there was a strip on each side…
I think I am just going to print straight triangles as well.
Oh, and I print PLA from a 0.4 mm nozzle at 215, and 210 from a 0.25 nozzle. But every printer is different.
1 Like
Okay, so I went with 0.8 mm since that seemed to work for Driftrotor.
To keep the plugs centered, even if they come unglued, I modeled a recess at the ends of the spacers:
And then, the plugs have a flange in the middle on two sides (to still be printable) which will nest in the recess:
1 Like
So last night saw production of the tri strip core… oooo I like that name!
They all cam out very well.
My design was not as fancy as @marcher 's but printed easily with no supports. Pegs were glued in 1 side and then the other once dry.
Sticking the strips on was easy but the foam was a bit of a squeeze.
Mashed it all in the poly tube and ta da!
It has rather bad shadows and cobbing.
Might be better if 7 or 8 mm strips was used for better diffusion.
but was a fun little project to do.
thanx to @mcarcher for giving me the push and inspiration to get this one done.
looks like i will be buying some of the small strips asap.
hopefully they will produce better results.
or we need to look at better diffusion materials.
1 Like