Viewer Popstick Connector Designs

[Joe3DPrinty]

I didn't see an existing topic for this - I hope I didn't miss it.

The latest DrVax video issued a challenge to develop alternate Popstick connector designs. I decided to give it a shot!

If printed in the orientation shown, it has no overhangs steeper than 45 degrees and only very small bridges. Unfortunately, I could not get an "X" hole in the top without introducing supports, so it only has one slot on the side. I plan to revisit this once my printer isn't already printing another project.

One improvement I'd like to explore is adding dovetails to one side so you could slide connectors rotated 45 degrees from each other - that would open up the possibility of sticks going in 8 directions at once!

[Joe3DPrinty]

This is an alternate version that breaks a bit from the spirit of the challenge, I think.

But it offers a lot of slots and still prints with no supports. I'll need to actually print it out to determine how structurally sound it really is.

[irvshapiro]

Well done. I like it. One of the challenges is to keep the printing time as short as possible.

[Joe3DPrinty]

Fair point! I've attempted to trim the fat and got it down to 30 minutes on a Daedalus (a fast CoreXY printer) or 45 minutes on a Prusa MK3 (estimated, not proven).

I included the stl below so that my time estimate can be fairly examined on other printers and slicers.

I used a tip from the video and added some more meat to the center of the design so it would grip the sticks there better. That's probably still the design's Achilles heel.

[irvshapiro]

Excellent. I love this design and your print times are reasonable. Why don't you post it to Thingiverse and if you would not mind link back to my video.

[Joe3DPrinty]

Sure thing!

I'll pick up some popsicle sticks this weekend so I can share it with a live example - I always prefer Thingiverse projects that include printed examples.

[Geit]

Yeah, it sucks when people don´t post picture. Some think render images is nice, but without a real world picture a model is usually useless.

The fun part is, that at the beginning you weren´t able to post a make/thingy without an image. They changed that and now spammers and lazy people flood Thingiverse. The "customizer" would probably not work, as it just creates a stupid clone make when someone uses it.

I did prints and they did not even fit properly, which is the reason why they picture did not exist in the first place. Pictures, at good description are my first checks and then also reading the comments is usually a good idea to see if a model is worth printing.

Single line descriptions are usually an easy way to detect, sloppy and broken designs, too.

[roon4660]

When you decide to try to repair an stl what program wpuld you use?

[Joe3DPrinty]

The STLs have been posted to Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4802238

I ended up tweaking the design a few more times after printing - there's always going to be something that works (or doesn't work) differently than you expect once reality hits.

The photo below shows the design I ended up with (as well as some basic "extender" pieces I threw in because sometimes you just need longer popsicle sticks).

[Ender5r]

Nicely done my friend. And good on you for posting on TV.

[roon4660]

I like your graphics. Those are three nice fonts and everything is nicely laid out.

[Joe3DPrinty]

Thanks! It's become my go-to project branding, since it echos my "3D Printy" logo.