Telescoping Maple Leaf Fidget

Summary

This 18x16.5x0.75cm telescoping maple leaf fidget is a fun, sturdy, and simple toy that reduces anxiety and improves concentration! As a print-in-place model with no assembly required, it is ready for use immediately after printing! I worked with Jane Manteau on this project (@jane_4677323).

Objective

With a partner, create two identical print-in-place telescoping fidgets in Solidworks. Neither the length nor width of the fidgets should exceed 18cm, and the two models must be made in exactly the same way to ensure identicality. The project should demonstrate efficient use of the Offset and Mirror tools, as well as the Boss Extrude and Cut Extrude features, which will be useful for drafting and creating the different layers.

Design in Solidworks

Maple Leaf Shape

For this project, we decided to use a maple leaf because we thought it would be an exciting challenge with its many sides and corners. The telescoping of the leaf fidget would also be interesting because of its three distinct sections.

Sketch

We began the project by creating an 18x18cm constraint box in a sketch in Solidworks and copying our maple leaf silhouette image onto it. We adjusted the size of the image so that it would be exactly 18cm tall, and then traced it. We did this by using the line tool to trace the right side of the leaf, and then, noticing the leaf’s symmetry, we used the mirror tool to copy it over a vertical construction line at the center. We added dimensions to the traced leaf to fully define our sketches.

We used the offset tool to offset the leaf inwards, alternating the layer thickness between 0.08cm and 0.24cm, beginning with 0.08cm, where the layers that were 0.08cm thick would be the walls of the fidget, and those that were 0.24cm thick were the spaces between layers, which would ensure that the printed fidget’s telescoping was effective.

After only a few offsets, the space between the sides of the leaf’s stem became too small, and the offset lines began to cross. We fixed this by using the power trim tool to remove all of those crossed lines, and continued offsetting the rest of the leaf.

Later, offsetting the three main sections of the main part of the leaf caused the lines to cross again. At that point, we used the power trim tool again, and then decided to continue offsetting each section individually.

Extruding

We selected the entire outline of the leaf using the Select Chain option in the toolbar, and then used the Boss Extrude feature with a height of 0.75cm. We set the draft angle to 32.37° inwards.

Next, with the second chain from the outside selected, we used the Cut Extrude feature set to “Through All” with the draft angle still set to 32.37°.

We repeated the previous two steps, with all of the Boss Extrude features set to “Up to Surface” until there was no longer space for more layers. Some of the innermost layers were not extruded.

Mirroring

With the entire model selected, we used the Mirror tool with the “Merge Solids” box checked to copy it over the wider surface of the leaf.

Design Choices and Changes

After we extruded the model, we noticed that there was a gap between two pieces of the stem. This was because the angle we used while extruding that part was too large, so we converted the stem into an entity and decreased the angle measure from 32.37° to 23° in the Boss Extrude menu. Because of this change, the stem did not extend far enough towards the main body of the leaf, so we used the Boss Extrude feature again until it did.

Although extruding the stem separately fixed the gap, it also created some shapes on the outer layer that seemed likely to interfere with the fidget’s effectiveness once it was printed. We removed these shapes by using the Boss Extrude and Cut Extrude features in various ways to fix each individual shape. Since all of the following layers appeared with the same problem, we had to repeat this process each time.

The first time we printed our projects, the outer layer, which was 0.08cm thick, was far too thin and seemed like it could break easily, so we increased its thickness.

The next time we printed them, we noticed that they did not telescope as much as we had hoped. We changed this by making each layer, with the exception of the outermost layer, thinner, which gave each one more space to move up and down.

Colors

I used a black and green filament for the main body of my leaf, and a lighter shade of green for about one millimeter on both the top and bottom of the leaf. The small layer of light green allowed both colors to be visible while the fidget was telescoping.

Jane chose to use a rainbow filament for her entire leaf, where the color gradually changed with height. Hers also had multiple colors visible when the fidget telescoped.