Castellation Collapsing Cup

Howdy, wonderful people!

This slightly-wobbly cup is formed from a set of concentric bands with inscribed tracks that drive the components up (or back down) when twisted! This one actually sprung from constructing puzzle boxes, or at least exploring ideas in that realm. However, while puzzle boxes use the interactions between parts to constrain movement, this model uses those interactions to practical effect.

If you look at the inside of the cup when it's extended, you'll see the tracks curving up and around. Notice how they have a little drop back down at the top, so that the segments have a resting point when it's all extended upwards. However, that drop heads down on an angle, rather than just descending vertically. The rationale there is that it's sufficient to keep the cup extended, but rotating the components against each other will bump them into the downward track, rather than just locking up and requiring the parts to be lifted, which is problematic when you're only holding the top and bottom bits!

Print Description

This is an articulated model with lots of bits that need to move along other bits, so watch out for any print issues like overextrusion or stringing that might hinder such motion or cause parts to bind together during printing!

The groove where I've changed filaments in one of my prints is in fact there for that specific reason, to give a useful place at which to change colours. I may have perhaps gone overboard by swapping between two gradients, and I suspect two solid colours would work much better :)

Print Dimensions

The Castellation Collapsing Cup occupies 103mm x 103mm on the print bed and is 76mm tall.

Supports Needed?

Not at all!  Designed for straightforward printing!

Scalability

The clearances on this one are fairly generous, so you could certainly try scaling it up or down!

Things will get tighter or looser accordingly, of course, but there isn't anything fundamentally problematic beyond the point at which things either fuse together or get so loose they fall apart, depending which end of the scaling spectrum we're talking about.

Print Orientation

This one prints upside-down, so that all the segments rest on the print bed.

Further Thoughts

This one went through a bunch of prototypes before it settled at its current size - it's remarkable how ridiculously tall it gets if the segments are much taller!

Anyway, I really should get back to those puzzle box ideas...

Happy printing!

xoxo

Sven.

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532 Castellation Collapsing Cup