Show and Tell: 3D Printed Steampunk Octopod
One final video from Norm’s recent trip to New York! Sean Charlesworth, our 3D printing expert, shares his famous steampunk octopod project, which we’ve talked about before had never seen in person. It’s a wonderfully designed and intricate model entirely conceived of and built by Sean–a project much more complex than your typical 3D printed piece.
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That is so cool!
I love how it opens up to reveal a detailed interior, with various items inside that actually light up.
Simply amazing, Sean! 👏
Absolutely amazing! The level of detail is stunning!
Couldn’t believe there wasn’t already a video about this. It’s a wonderful project. I love the overall design and intricate detailing.
wow…very cool
For some reason my sound is broken on my phone, will check it out again when I can get to a pc. However I did watch it (it was more show, less tell) and it is amazing. Can’t wait to re watch it with sound this time.
On another note. Sean, please please please do a walk through of your shop. I love what I see, I want to see more!
Very cool, thanks for sharing
I remember seeing this in person at my very first Maker Faire and immediately thinking, Maker Faire is awesome! I wish I had the resources or time to make one for myself.
Wow. Great video and great piece. I was in awe the detail that it had. I am curious Sean do you see 3D printing overcoming the issues you spoke about in the video about not aging well (in the simplest context)? Just curious to hear your thoughts on this. But great video. Thanks for sharing.
Great video, amazing talent. Also, may not matter but do you want your IP address out there in the open?
I think they featured Sean’s own Inventern video-submission last fall, which covers this build. Nice to do a followup though. The shelf-life of 3d prints is something I haven’t seen discussed much.
It’s a local IP, so it doesn’t do much good for anyone outside their local network.
You are correct, it was my Inventern submission – thus one of the best project decisions I ever made. There’s a lot more build information on my site so check it out. – there’s already a lot of different materials some of which wouldn’t have this problem. But a lot of them are still UV sensitive so need to be coated, painted or kept out of light. The materials are just going to keep getting better and cheaper.
I have to clear a shop tour through NYU PR so it’s slow going.
Since I created the Octopod I have had quite a few people ask to buy one and I hope to make that possible down the road. As we talk about in the video, it’s really expensive to print and the material does not hold up in the long run. Also, as one of my first 3D printing projects, there’s a lot of things that I would change or fix for a production model. This pretty much means building the whole thing from scratch again. The tentacles also pose an interesting problem as they are one of the coolest features and also one of the hardest to reproduce without a dual-material 3D printer. I hope to one day have some Octopods for sale, it’s just going to be awhile. If you are interested in an Octopod, zap me an email via my website. Thanks, glad you like it!
I would think your best option would be casting everything, Including the arms. If can can do dual material casting as well. Its not uncommon to mix abs and silicon so that you can have the flexibility and rigidity combined. Tooth brushes are a good example of this, as a large majority these days have this combination used on the handles.
You would have to go back through and Paint some of the details probably, Like the rivets. I think painting the rivets would be faster than trying to cast them in a separate color. In part due to their size.
all good. Just putting it out there that it’d be great. Hopefully others feel the same!
If there’s a drooping/sagging issue with the 3d prints what will happen to Adam’s Mecha-Glove? Will the parts just seize up, and not move after a few years?
I really like the comment at the end about the limitations of 3D printing. It seems that a lot of people consider rapid prototyping the end product rather than the quick R&D mockup process that it is. It’s slow and expensive and depending on the process lacks the smoothness of something like an injection molded plastic part because you’ll always have lamination lines. People who produce “finished” products that are 3D printed, i think, are completely missing the point and are making things harder on themselves and depriving the customer out of a quality product.
you have to remember that different 3d printing processes have different limitations. SLS generally has an extremely high quality finished result. Which is great for short production extreme tolerance applications. To the point that turbines engines are being built with them. But they do have the accompanying price tag that goes with.
But I do agree that FDM parts have additional limitations that make them unsuitable for a production product.