Haunted Graveyard – Crank Automaton (Zombie Hand, Skull, Ghost & Bat) – No Screws, No Supports

A fully 3D-printed Halloween automaton – no screws, no glue, no supports. 🪦🦇

HOW IT WORKS

A D-shaped camshaft carries four eccentric cams, each one 90° apart. Every figure rides on a square push-rod with a flat foot resting on its cam, so the four spooky surprises happen one after another as you turn the crank. The open front shows the whole mechanism – kids love watching it.

• 4 moving figures: zombie hand, skull, ghost and bat

• Hand, skull and ghost hide completely inside their graves and climb almost all the way out

• Everything prints without supports, every part fits a 180 × 180 mm bed

• Assembled size: 150 × 84 mm base, about 17 cm tall with the moon

• Multicolour without an MMU: the ground and the moon backdrop use filament swaps at set heights (already in the 3MF files) – or simply print them in one colour

• The photo shows my own print – it runs smoothly straight off the printer

PARTS & PRINT TIMES (0.2 mm, PLA)

• 1-box – 3 h 41 min

• 2-graveyard-ground – 2 h (filament swap at 8.4 mm: green → grey)

• 3-moon-backdrop – 42 min (swaps at 3.2 mm → yellow moon, 4.2 mm → black tree; orange sky)

• 4a-guide-plate– 1 h

• 4b-shaft – 14 min

• 5-cams-rods-crank – 1 h 43 min

• 6a/6b/6c figures – 36 min (skull + ghost white, hand green, bat black)

Total about 10.5 h and 260 g of PLA.

Settings: 0.2 mm, 15 % infill, 2 perimeters, no supports, no brim. All 3MF files contain the settings and colour changes.

ASSEMBLY (about 10 minutes) – see the illustrated PDF guide in the files

1. Camshaft: hold the parts inside the box in this order, left to right: spacer 16 mm · cam H · spacer 26 mm · cam S · spacer 30 mm · cam G · spacer 32 mm · cam B · spacer 13.4 mm. The engraved letter on every cam faces the crank side (right). Push the shaft in from the left through the wall, all parts and the right wall.

2. Crank: slide it onto the right end of the shaft, line up the holes and push the square pin through.

3. Rods: every rod has its letter too. Push the four rods up through the guide plate from below (feet stay underneath) in the order H · S · G · B. Lower the plate onto the ledges so each foot rests on the cam with the same letter.

4. Graveyard: put it on top (pegs into holes); the bat rod comes up through the small square hole on the right.

5. Figures: push the bat onto its rod. Turn the crank until a rod rises in its grave and push the figure on – hand left, skull middle, ghost right.

6. Moon: press the backdrop tab firmly into the slot at the back (the small ribs make it a tight fit). Done – turn the crank! 🎃

Happy Halloween! If you print one, I'd love to see a make 🦇