Design of the Week: Venus Box, With Teeth!

By on October 31st, 2016 in Design

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This week’s selection is the very curious Venus Box, modified to include teeth, by Thingiverse contributor Marcin Jedynak.

The non-toothed basic Venus Box itself was designed by Thingiverse contributor Tom West, who created a unique design for a quad-door spherical container. It opens by turning the gear that makes up the bottom of the print. 

 My own
My own “plain” Venus box 3D print

Composed of six parts, the Venus Box is a very fun print: the parts are straightforward to print, and assembly is simply a matter of snapping it together. There’s no need for glue, bolts or any other attachment mechanism. 

Once the Venus Box is complete it opens in a very peculiar manner, with all four doors smoothly sliding to the side. I’ve printed one of these myself and found it compelling to operate.  There’s something very subtle and utterly fascinating to watch how the doors slide open and closed. Watch the video: 

It’s a great deal of fun to leave it on a table and watch people play with it – until they turn the gear too far and break it, in which case you simply need to re-print some parts. 

But this week’s award is not for the Venus Box itself, but instead the awesome modification done by Jedynak who altered the two exterior doors to be composed of teeth!

The modified version is as easy to 3D print as the original, and you also end up with the oddly fascinating door movements – except they now have a bite! 

The 3D model includes the teeth, but the best way of deploying this print is to paint it in garish colors as Jedynak has done at top. The outer “teeth” doors have white enamel teeth and grayish backing, while the inner doors are a reddish muscular membrane. Spooky!

An ideal 3D print project for Halloween. 

Via Thingiverse

By Kerry Stevenson

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has written over 8,000 stories on 3D printing at Fabbaloo since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!