Frabjous Sculpture

by davo

Taken from a Thingiverse model, each piece looks like this:

• duplicated 30 times
• inner hole switched to a separate layer so that they can be cut before the 'S' shape
• resize so that the depth of the teeth match the depth of the target material - 3mm Transparent perspex. (This was a mistake, see below)
• the paper and plastic backing should be removed from the perspex before cutting as it is a fiddly task afterwards.

Scaled to 3mm - warning, this is the one I used but is small and difficult to assemble. frabjous_sized.dxf.zip

… Was a bitch and took about four days elapsed made up of multiple assembly attempts rolled back. There are a few pointers to help scattered around the 'net but I didn't find any of them particularly helpful. The windy nature of the sculpture and the way it keeps weaving back inside follows a specific pattern which isn't completely apparent until you've made a few costly mistakes. This needs more pictures.

• Don't trust plans off the web, they often have small or even significant problems.
• It was too complicated to glue while assembling and too fiddly not to.
• This design at 3mm clearance was not very forgiving. A couple of small mistakes and I no longer had room to insert the last two pieces through the sculpture. I resorted to snapping these in half and poking the halves in from either side.
• I should have used a nicer glue than superglue!
• Bluetac is no substitute for glue.
• Sticky tape is no substitute either.

• Try a larger copy with pieces double the size but reduce size of the teeth to match 3mm material.
• Try perspex with LED lighting hidden inside, contacting and lighting separate arms of the sculpture
• 6mm clearance but have each section made from two 3mm pieces of perspex, the inner piece as colored perspex and the outer piece in clear perspex. Together they act like a single 6mm thick piece to match the teeth size.