Exoball (Patreon)

Howdy, wonderful people!

Tessellation is the best, and I really wanted to find an interesting way to apply the concept to a sphere!  So, that's what this is - a hollow sphere comprised of eight curvy shapes that mesh together and look vaguely retro-science-fictiony!  It's held together with a bunch of bolts, but there's also the option of using magnets.

As you can probably guess, this one is all about the geometry!  The main constraint wasn't so much that the repeated form be able to tile the sphere, which is just a two dimensional issue, but that the final piece of the assembly be able to slide in past the rest of the pieces in that third dimension.  

You'll need eight of the segment pieces, and if you're using bolts you'll need 24 of those.  There's also a driver tool!

Print Description

This is a regular mode print.  Infill shouldn't make a huge difference so feel free to keep it on the low side.  

Print Dimensions

Each Exoball segment is 127mm x 123mm on the print bed and is 43mm tall.

Supports Needed?

Not at all!  Designed for straightforward printing!

Optional Magnets

Instead of using the bolts it's possible to use 6x3mm cylindrical magnets, and mounting holes are provided accordingly.  It'll need a lot of magnets, however, which is why the bolt option is there :)

Scalability

This is an assembly, so it should be reasonably resilient in the face of resizing, but there are some tolerances that might be affected, such as the fit of the bolts (eventually) and the fit between the pieces, which currently allows for a tiny gap.

If you're using magnets, of course, then bear in mind the magnet holes will scale along with the rest of the model!

Print Orientation

The main segment (you'll need eight of these) prints in a kind of arched position, and the bolts print head-down.

File Location

You'll find this one at at 644 Exoball

Link to dropbox post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/31697592

Further Thoughts

When I set out to make a tessellated sphere I originally started with a form that had far more segments than this one, but it quickly became evident that actually joining things together was going to be a logistical factor.  It would certainly be possible to construct a sphere with many more pieces, but the actual connections between the parts might need a different approach...

Happy printing!

xoxo

Sven.