Platonic faces

This is a model for creating faces of Platonic Solids. With enough printed faces you can glue them together and create 3D-printed wireframes of each of the five Platonic Solids.

The model is one OpenScad file, and by changing two parameters, faces appropriate for each solids are rendered. The who parameters are the ribCount; 3 for tetrahedron, octahedron and icosahedron, 4 for cube, 5 for dodecahedron and dihedral angle, which is half the angle between to adjoined faces. The latter look arbitrary but get some regularity in their arccos form.

The OpenSCAD file is created some years back and inspired by Joe Deken from http://newblankets.org.

More info on Platonic Solids can be found everywhere, but also on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic\_solid.

Note the dodecahedron was considered divine in ancient Greece, so reproducing it as 3D-print there might be sacrilege.

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Prusa

Printer: 

Prusa Mk2

Rafts:

No

Supports: 

No

Resolution:

as high as possible

Infill: 

low

Filament:
any rigid material, as long as you can glue it. 

Notes: 

Printer make not very important, but for smooth glue surfaces the diagonally printed sides should be as smooth as possible. Some post-printing filing or sandpapering might help getting the best results.

Post-Printing

The faces are to be glued together from diagonally printed sides. So it will take some careful printing and filing afterwards to get smooth surfaces for the glue. The filament can be any rigid one, but some like the common PLA will require aggressive superglue to properly stick. PETG might be a better choice.

Category: Math Art