25 Apr

3D Printable TOWARD Construction Kit

If you have access to a 3D printer and want a modular way to build TOWARD and other related structures, here are some options for putting together your own construction kit.

To get started, you’ll need to download some 3D print files. There are a few ways to use the files, so you’ll have to make some choices. Below we’ll outline how to get just enough pieces to build TOWARD exactly for each choice, but if you’re putting together a more general construction kit, you might want to print more of each component than indicated.

(A) Choose a TO set. All TOs have 10mm long edges. You will print 38 TOs total, but if you want to color-code them you could make 6 in one color, 8 in a second color, and 24 in a third color:

(B) Choose a peg type and print 48 copies of it:

  • long_peg-hexagon.stl will leave a 2mm gap between TOs. The resulting TOWARD will be about 117mm tall when resting on a rhombus.
  • short_peg-hexagon.stl will allow the TOs to abut face-to-face. The resulting TOWARD will be 100mm tall when resting on a rhombus.
  • tapered_peg-hexagon.stl will also allow the TOs to abut face-to-face. It has an hourglass shape to allow easier removal than the other two options.

I’ve printed out a set of TOs from TO.stl in white, yellow, and black to mimic the in-person TOWARD build.

Here is what assembly looks like using long pegs (long_peg-hexagon.stl):

If you want to mimic the model above, here are the exact components you’ll need to print and the plastics I used:

QuantityFileFilament
24TO.stlMatte Ivory White PLA
8TO.stlMatte Lemon Yellow PLA
6TO.stlMatte Charcoal PLA
48long_peg-hexagon.stlMatte Ash Grey PLA

I also printed out a set of the tapered pegs (tapered_peg-hexagon.stl).

Here are a few angles of the finished build with the gapless face-to-face connections that the tapered pegs allow:

If you want to customize this further, I’ve made the OpenSCAD files available. If you want to experiment with making short square pegs, for example, you can edit short_peg.scad. Here is the full collection of files associated with this project:

Description.stl.scad
TO with square and hexagonal holesTO.stlTO.scad
TO with only hexagonal holesTO-hexes_only.stlTO-hexes_only.scad
TOWARD edge TOTOWARD-edge.stlTOWARD-edge.scad
TOWARD degree-3 vertex TOTOWARD-vertex3.stlTOWARD-vertex3.scad
TOWARD degree-4 vertex TOTOWARD-vertex4.stlTOWARD-vertex4.scad
Long (hexagonal) peglong_peg-hexagon.stllong_peg.scad
Short (hexagonal) pegshort_peg-hexagon.stlshort_peg.scad
Tapered (hexagonal) pegtapered_peg-hexagon.stltapered_peg.scad

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