Telescoping Tubes

thingiverse

Inspired by extending tubes (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7081). I wanted to use less material, make each tube thinner so more will fit in the same area and have the tubes lock in place when open or closed. When the tubes are closed the guides that protrude into the track of the tube around it are held in place by a bump in the track (like in thing #1481). When the tubes are open they twist to lock and the guides go over another bump in the track so it can't fall back. Having it twist to lock allows the track wall so it can resist force along the axis. Instructions Your printer will need to be fairly well calibrated to print these. I suggest starting with the "2 small tubes.stl" because it is quick to print and doesn't take much plastic if it doesn't work. If you are feeling more confident you can print the larger tubes. The largest tube looks most like a telescope, it starts off at 60mm and extends to about 258mm. Once it printed you may need to use a knife to break the strings between the tubes and give the tubes a slight squeeze to break the guides from the tracks. I have included the source files created in NX6. If you can edit them all of the parameters are east to change to change the tube dimensions or add more tubes.