Sad News Alert

Thankfully, its cooled down a bit now.

Im trying to work out the best way to handle the front steps of the waltzer.

This is what i currently have.

I dont know if i should print them as they exist in the real world, i.e each step its own separate object, or if i should just print them as a 4 objects.

This is the underside, they have a frame support for the ends of each steps, i cant decide if i want to add something else to help prevent the steps from slipping off.

At the moment i have the frame support "booled" into the steps, so there is a little notch for the frame to sit in, which should help prevent side to side movement.

I get the feeling that it wont be enough and that i should have something to stop them from sliding forward and coming loose, But i cant work out how to do it, the steps are too thin to reliably hold a steel dowel, so i dont think that would work.

If i print the steps in 4 parts (most likely), it would be less likely to slip... maybe?🤷‍♂️

Its 29c outside and damn near close to 40 inside. I hate this fucking weather. Give me cold and rainy any day of the week.

I wanna work more on the waltzer, but the heat is fucking horrible😭

The hinges have been attached.

I have no idea what these are called, so i just call them hinge bar supports. They exist on the real ride, presumably to keep the hinge bar from just flapping around and letting the wheel come into contact with the moving platforms.

The top of the moving platforms. I tried to add some kinda wood design to make it a little more realistic, i did print a plain topped one ages ago, but it looks... odd.

The ring on the blue platforms is for the car wheels to ride on. I was originally going to just have them recessed for a washer or something to fit in the space, so it was actually metal, but i couldn't find any thing fit and still looked right. I could cover these with aluminum tape i suppose, i might give that a try at some point.

Hinge bars are constructed.

I used 2x10mm steel dowel pins as axles.

They work well, i could have used the old ones i made, but i fucked up the hole diameter and glued the pins in, so they wernt removable without destroying the little wheel mount thing😬

I knew i was gonna post updated to here about the waltzer, but its basically becoming a waltzer build log 😂

Just put the wheels together, Im using 18 5x4x10mm (10mm outer, 4mm inner & 5mm thickness) bearings as i was the closest i could get to the correct scale (1/24).

I would like to add a cover of some kind around the outside of the bearing, something grippy, but i couldn't come up with anything.
Lego wheels are to big (at least the ones i found).
TPU is soft, but not grippy.

I did try heatshrink tubing, but if i shrunk the tubing around a single bearing, its REALLY hard to trim it flush enough it doesn't interfere with anything else. Then i tried doing a bunch in a single tube, shrink it, then cut the tube to separate each bearing, but they would slide out of the tubing.

I did try adhesive tubing too, but the glue interfered with the rotation of the bearing.
So im kinda at a loss what else to try 🤷‍♂️

Just tested the chamfered version and its greatly improved the swing angle of the hingebar.

Here is a terrible picture of the increased swing angle.

Hopefully that increase will make it easier for the wheels to maintain contact with the track, and not require any extra weights.

Last night i printed the first batch of "new" hingebars, the same model as the one i test printed and i know i said it had a steep angle to it, but looking at it this morning, it could be better.

Where the moving platform butts up against the hinge bar, there is still a gap, which means something is keeping it from fully reaching its potential swing angle.
I have added a chamfer to the edge, which should give it a few more degrees of movement, hopefully...

I would add a chamfer to the other edge, but it would only be a visual thing and almost never seen, and thats the print bed side, so eh

Just spent 20 on DK (Dorling Kindersley) pc cd-roms🤷‍♂️

So i adjusted the hinge bars of the waltzer the other day. The then current ones were working fine, but i miscalculated the distance needed between the track and the top of the moving platform, so when the walkways were in place, the moving platforms were scraping against them when it was in a valley.

I moved the location of the wheel axle hole so it raises the platforms 2mm higher, printed out a test piece and gave it a go, but the swing radius was really bad, so it will make it even more difficult for the wheel to be in constant contact with the track.

I just adjusted the design again, this time ive moved the hinge hole so its 1mm closer to the edge, it doesn't sound like alot, but i just tested it and even without any breaking in, it wants to rest at a pretty steep angle, so im printing a new set and im gonna test it on the ride and see how it handles the valleys and hills now.

My words suck, here is some pictures.

Ignore the thing sticking out the side.

As anyone who has 3d printed parts with screw holes in them should know, 3D printed holes are not accurate, They are barely holes at all.

So the posts for the waltzer, they have the holes i mentioned below. I need to drill them out to the correct size and all i have is this tiny little handheld drill that makes your hands burn from the friction after 4 holes.

So i have made this, it should fit on most screw driver bits.

It just sits over the screw bit in the driver, and holds the drill bit secure.
Now i can use it to drill out those holes and not remove my finger prints in the process 😂

Not bad for 30mins work including printing.
I have no idea how long it will last, but it took 25 mins to print, so its no hardship to make a new one, And i dont know how much torque it can handle, for my use, its perfectly functional.

Anyway, here is the step file, in case anyone wants it🤷‍♂️

Driver2Drill.step (43.2 KB)

Lets talk about the tracks.

They are a fucking nightmare, every single stage of the design for the tracks was a nightmare.

I had nothing to go on regarding the dimensions, undulations or even the best way to print them, so i just kinda worked with what i could find.

I managed to find a picture of some waltzer wheels that had marking on them, from that i was able to find the tyre dimensions, which then enabled me to work out how wide the track needed to be, based on 1/24 scale, which this waltzer is.

Im not gonna go to much into the design process as once the undulations had been figured out, it was a simple 'sweep' to get the full track with a t shaped profile and slicing it into 12 sections.

My biggest issue with the track was printing it.
oh my god it was a nightmare. The track has marking on it to indicate its location, so they needed to be easily read, but the top of the track needed to be as smooth as it can be (i dont like post-processing stuff😭).

When i eventually managed to print them to a somewhat reasonable quality (they are REALLY bad), i realized they just wasn't gonna hold in place by themselves, once i had all 12 in place, they held together pretty well, but they were still moving up and down, which made an audible thumping noise when the ride was running.

So i redesigned the gates to include pins to hole the track in place (like a real waltzer has), and then had to reprint them. Thankfully i managed to do it in one batch, but jesus it takes a lot of support material.

I haven't been able to pull it off since, but i originally managed to print them standing on there ends. it took far to long, but the quality was nice.

The pins work incredibly well. The ride in its current state feels sturdy and not like something is going to fall off if i knock it to much.

here is some pics of the pins holding the tracks in place. i think they look quite nice 🤷‍♂️

The biggest annoyance i have so far with the waltzer is that the moving platforms are kinda light, so when they go around, it BARELY makes contact with the track at its loweest point. If i weigh the platforms down, they make contact great, but the weight makes more work for the motors, which are kinda already close to there limit.

I did add some holes on the underside of the platforms for adding some m3 nuts, thinking it might help with making contact to the track, but it hardly did a thing.

i get the feeling at some point im going to discover something that pushes me to adjust and reprint the platforms, which i really hope i not.

1. because they take ages to print
2. i can only do 3 at a time

The only thing im nervous about with the waltzer is the posts, They have some holes in for the top brace, rafters and handrails, but im nervous about the strength of those holes. i dont think they will break, but i get the feeling over time, they will start to creep, which the holes being the most likely place for that to start. Hopefully the final weight resting on the posts wont be to much😬

Just put all the gates in place and then realized i forgot to drill the track pin holes out 😭

Started printing the outside posts of the waltzer last night, just got another 12 to print today.

I was just going to put the new gates on, but forgot i had to wait for the glue holding the pins in place to dry, no idea why i made the holes so big🤷‍♂

Originally i made the gates thinking each was going to be customized in some way, but since ive made these modifications for the walkway and the track, they are all identical. So now i can probably remove the markings indicating there position on the waltzer. The benefit of no markings means there will be 4 gate models instead of 24. Then i can just print off as many as i need for each.

I should probably create a print list...

i wonder how long it would take to 3d print the eiffel tower, and much filament it would take 🤔

According to the cad software im using, im on version 459 of the waltzer. Feels like v4000😭

The hinge bars and the missing shutters have now finished printing, but im to high actually make use of them at the moment lmao

If your into 3D printing, buy a deburring tool, they are amazing once you get the hand of it🥰

I was about to say the shutters have been printed, and im now printing the hingebars. But i was just counting the shutters and im missing 2, so now ive gotta change spool back to red 😭