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Making a Stainless Steel Rubik's Cube

lulabs.net

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Re: Making a Stainless Steel Rubik's Cube

#31

Post by sokoloff »

mjb wrote: post #26
Dig1t wrote: post #20

This is so cool, stuff like this makes me wish I had studied mechanical engineering instead of computer science. Does anyone know of a good route for learning the software stack associated with this stuff? I keep up with some maker YT channels like Stuff Made Here and they usually do an okay job of showing which machines were used and how each piece was made. But what they usually never show is which programs they us…

This Old Tony, Blondihacks, Wintergatan, and others have done end-to-end videos from CAD to machining to assembly. I particularly recommend Blondihacks' beginner videos: well produced, fun to watch, and cover nearly everything you need to know to get started. Also, face the reality you won't be doing work like this on day one. But you will make something fun.

I’d add Clough42 to that excellent list.

Re: Making a Stainless Steel Rubik's Cube

#32

Post by httpz »

Dig1t wrote: post #20

This is so cool, stuff like this makes me wish I had studied mechanical engineering instead of computer science. Does anyone know of a good route for learning the software stack associated with this stuff? I keep up with some maker YT channels like Stuff Made Here and they usually do an okay job of showing which machines were used and how each piece was made. But what they usually never show is which programs they us…

It may not the most suitable for hobbyists but your local community college may offer some classes and access to machines at a very affordable price.

Re: Making a Stainless Steel Rubik's Cube

#33

Post by Izikiel43 »

Klaster_1 wrote: post #25
Dig1t wrote: post #20

This is so cool, stuff like this makes me wish I had studied mechanical engineering instead of computer science. Does anyone know of a good route for learning the software stack associated with this stuff? I keep up with some maker YT channels like Stuff Made Here and they usually do an okay job of showing which machines were used and how each piece was made. But what they usually never show is which programs they us…

So I'm a software engineer too, but also a cyclist. A weightweenie. At certain point, you begin to mix and match totally incompatible parts, solvable with a modest manufacturing capability. For me, the learning path was basically the same as with programming - lots of motivation, access to internet and tools (a machinist). Back in school, we were taught part sketching and machining basics, which helped a bit. I picke…

Or you can be this guy, who has a Bachelors in Mechanical engineering, a Masters in CS, and does crazy stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/c/stuffmadehere

Re: Making a Stainless Steel Rubik's Cube

#34

Post by s1mon »

teraflop wrote: post #22
Dig1t wrote: post #20

This is so cool, stuff like this makes me wish I had studied mechanical engineering instead of computer science. Does anyone know of a good route for learning the software stack associated with this stuff? I keep up with some maker YT channels like Stuff Made Here and they usually do an okay job of showing which machines were used and how each piece was made. But what they usually never show is which programs they us…

Fusion 360 has a free version and is very approachable. It's pretty popular among 3D printing hobbyists, but you can use it for all kinds of 2D and 3D designs.

Onshape also has a free tier [0] and is popular amongst hobbyists and education.

[0] https://www.onshape.com/en/products/free

Re: Making a Stainless Steel Rubik's Cube

#35

Post by s1mon »

CarVac wrote: post #4

I never realized before that the sliding surfaces inside the cube are cylindrical, not spherical.

Doing some quick image searches for teardowns, it seems that different models have been done both ways. Some with spherical bearings and some with intersecting cylinders. It makes some sense that either way works, as you're only ever rotating around one axis at a time.

Re: Making a Stainless Steel Rubik's Cube

#37

Post by jwise0 »

s1mon wrote: post #34
teraflop wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fusion 360 has a free version and is very approachable. It's pretty popular among 3D printing hobbyists, but you can use it for all kinds of 2D and 3D designs.

Onshape also has a free tier [0] and is popular amongst hobbyists and education. [0] https://www.onshape.com/en/products/free

I was Chris's housemate at the time, the victim of the hours of 'sssshhhh sssshhhh shhhhh'. Interestingly, he rendered this mostly by drawing boxes in pov-ray -- I'm not sure what he used to make dimensioned drawings, but it was definitely not any of the modern CAD tools, and they were mostly for his reference.

But these days, I do highly recommend Onshape -- it breaks down a lot of the 'rules' that I thought I knew about CAD software. I started using it about two months ago; one of my clients uses it for real industrial design of some IoT hardware, so it is powerful enough to do real things. Before I started using Onshape, I thought that 1) all CAD software was a million billion gigabytes, and required stupidly powerful hardware for no readily apparent reason, and 2) had an annoying licensing model that requires you to jump through hoops to get access to the free tier. Well, neither of these are true with Onshape: I went from 'hmm, maybe I should try this for my personal projects' to 'constraining a sketch' in about 90 seconds ... on Linux ... in Firefox ... on my Shenzhen ThinkPad ... with an Intel GPU. I was blown away at how much it failed to suck.

Anyway, my suggestion on choosing software is: it probably doesn't all that much matter. What you want to learn is the CAD mindset, not the software. An experienced MechE once told me that if you are not careful, you can end up writing 'spaghetti CAD'. These tools these days give you a lot of features that are, in theory, more expressive, but in practice, can result in unmanufacturable parts or unmaintainable designs: be careful!

Re: Making a Stainless Steel Rubik's Cube

#38

Post by SapporoChris »

I definately enjoyed the article, but apologies. I enjoyed the referrenced article https://kellycordes.com/2009/11/02/the-fun-scale/ much more. Perhaps it's just my mood at the moment, but it had me laughing out loud.

Regarding the Stainless Steel Rubik's Cube. What a work of art!

Re: Making a Stainless Steel Rubik's Cube

#39

Post by 42jd »

mjb wrote: post #26
Dig1t wrote: post #20

This is so cool, stuff like this makes me wish I had studied mechanical engineering instead of computer science. Does anyone know of a good route for learning the software stack associated with this stuff? I keep up with some maker YT channels like Stuff Made Here and they usually do an okay job of showing which machines were used and how each piece was made. But what they usually never show is which programs they us…

This Old Tony, Blondihacks, Wintergatan, and others have done end-to-end videos from CAD to machining to assembly. I particularly recommend Blondihacks' beginner videos: well produced, fun to watch, and cover nearly everything you need to know to get started. Also, face the reality you won't be doing work like this on day one. But you will make something fun.

Wintergatan is doing a lot of live design/cad sessions the past few weeks on his “wintergatan live” channel which might be useful or interesting
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