Retro Rocket Pencil Case

thingiverse

In the age of smartphones, tablets, and digital everything what is more retro than a No. 2 pencil? You guessed it: a retro rocket styled pencil case and carousel! You will never misplace your trusty pencils when they are stored in the coolest 3D printed pencil case since the space race. This case is like NASA in the 60s: large, a little impractical and inspirationally awesome. Aside from the cool retro styling this model is fully 3D printable, support free, snap-fitting and features a series of simple and elegant mechanisms. A simple bayonet mount locks the carousel, which holds a dozen pencils, into the vertical position. Rotate it to the right and the pencils fold into their individual slots as the rocket case prepares for blastoff. If you're like me you use your pencils down to the bitter end, so give the nose cone a twist to the left and you will have all the storage space you need for erasers, sharpeners, and pencils too short for the carousel. Or... You could store some super cool matching retro rocket pencil toppers up there along with your brand new folding 50 cm ruler. As a space minded type though centimeters may not be enough for you. No problem: this ruler also converts to light years. This thing is a work in progress but ready to go as is. Coming soon: a replacement outer case with optional carry handle! Check out the demo video:http://youtu.be/9lee-dxB1go UPDATE: 9/26/2013 There was a slight misalignment in the case_print.STL file that caused the outer shell to rest slightly above the build plate. It has been fixed and re-uploaded. Thanks to coolarj10 for noticing and pointing out the error. Instructions This thing prints like a dream: I sliced each of the plates of case pieces in Makerware at .25 mm layer thickness for the rocket and .2 mm for the ruler parts and pencil toppers. Two shells is sufficient for sturdiness and stability at .1 infill. It is a tall piece though and a long print (took a total of 15 hours) that is well worth the wait. When you first assemble the carousel into its threaded fastening a few drops of oil (I used 3 in 1 household type oil) will help it thread all the way into the rocket base and keep it moving easy. On a side note for the Ruler: I had some issues with missing infill right around the 60% mark when I sliced and printed the entire tray with all five ruler pieces and yet they sliced and printed fine individually. So I uploaded the individual ruler pieces as well in case anyone has a similar issue. UPDATE: The extrusion problems on the ruler seem to be caused by repeated extrusion and retraction on the layers with the hash-marks because my original Makerware profile used the "doExternalspurs, true" To alleviate this problem and also make for a better print overall, make sure doExternalspurs is set to False. UPDATE: 9/26/2013 There was a slight misalignment in the case_print.STL file that caused the outer shell to rest slightly above the build plate. It has been fixed and re-uploaded. Thanks to coolarj10 for notching and pointing out the error. Prototypes printed in PLA from ToybuilderLabs