Mechanical Iris Dome Box Print-In-Place

pinshape

It's a dome with an iris-style opening that swings open when you twist the dome itself. All parts are printed in one piece, so assembly isn't needed. The shells have a thin gap between them and hidden hinges, slots, and pins create the mechanism. Once printing is done, the door pieces still stick to the print bed and are cut free with a knife or pliers. I've written a detailed tutorial on how to design this at my website http://eleccelerator.com/mech-iris/. There are dozens of screenshots along with explanations of what I did and why. The goal is not just to show you what buttons to press, but to teach the logic behind creating a shape that has functions and requirements. The CAD model is available in the tutorial, but it's also hosted on Onshape here: https://www.onshape.com/ Because it's an Onshape model, you can fork the design and immediately make modifications. The model is created with extensive use of relationships and constraints. To change the size, just edit the top variables and the changes will propagate throughout the model without errors. This is how I was able to easily create three sizes without much work.