3D-printable Yoshimoto Cube

3D Printing & Imaging
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Thingiverse user 2ROBOTGUY (Mark from Atlanta, GA) saw Sean Ragan’s Yoshimoto Cube post and wanted one of his own. After briefly considering buying one, he decided to make one of his own — it took him 2 hours in SolidWorks. Download the STLs on Thingiverse.

10 thoughts on “3D-printable Yoshimoto Cube

  1. Sean Michael Ragan says:

    Now the n+1 step would be to design a printable mold for this component, so you could print the mold and cast, what is it–16 of these units that you need to make the cube? Then find the right kinda tape to make the hinges.

  2. 2robotguy says:

    Michael,

    Because the parts are Symmetric, it was easy to build a mold for these parts. The Yoshimoto Cube is both a positive and negative mold for itself. I was also able to build a 4 part mold for even faster production. Do you have a makerbot to print these?

    Mark F
    RobotGuy

    1. Sean Michael Ragan says:

      Unfortunately, no, I don’t have a MakerBot, but depending on how big you wanted the finished cube to be, it might be possible to get the mold printed at Shapeways for a reasonable price. A 1″ cube of their basic white, tough plasticy material only costs about $15 US, with free shipping. They’ve got a minimum order of $25 US, however, so you could experiment a bit and scale it to just hit the minimum order mark.

      Then there’d have to be some research about the right casting material to use with whatever the mold is printed out of, but I’m sure it can be figured out.

      Cheers-
      Sean

      1. Sean Michael Ragan says:

        …I do have a friend with a MakerBot who could almost certainly be persuaded to print either the mold or the original parts. My only concern is that the MakerBot may not have adequate resolution to produce a satisfying puzzle. But then, MakerBot printing is super-cheap, so you could make the puzzle big enough that the resolution would cease to matter so much.

        1. 2robotguy says:

          Sean,
          I am about 3/4 done with my Mendel right now but will not have it up and running for 6 weeks or so. If your friend could print them for me that would be amazing! I could possibly trade him for some services down the road. I’ll pay for shipping

          Email me @ Robotguy@bellsouth.net if your interested.

          Mark F
          2Robotguy

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My interests include writing, electronics, RPGs, scifi, hackers & hackerspaces, 3D printing, building sets & toys. @johnbaichtal nerdage.net

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