Preassembled Ball Jointed Cubes

thingiverse

This object was designed as a study in preassembled interconnecting objects. This is my second attempt - the first fused together in printing. To avoid the need for supports, which would immobilize the ball joint, there are ten tiny support cylinders between the two cubes. These supports aren't perfect, so the bottom surface of the upper cube won't print beautifully, but it did a whole lot better than I expected. I intend to create an OpenSCAD script for a parameterized version this object, so watch this space if you're interested. If you have any thoughts on modifying the design to print horizontally (so that many more can be attached!), please leave a comment. Yes, I do realize that the geometry is not super clean. I modeled this in Blender when I should have used OpenSCAD. That said, it could be a whole lot worse, and the file is still nice and tiny. Thanks for looking! Instructions The initial build was set to 20% infill with 2 shells and a layer height of 0.2mm. I scaled the cubes down to 30mm square because I was concerned that the build would fail. It worked out fine and will probably work at its original size as well. The support cylinders closest to the corners can be easily removed with needle nose pliers. Once those are pulled out, the supports near the center will break free with just a little torque. Enjoy!