Thingiverse user gzumwalt shared an awesome education project that we think you should check out.
A spring motor demonstrator printed entirely in PLA, spring and all.
An interesting study for beginning mechanical engineering students of rotational torque versus rotational velocity, as well as spring forces using various infill settings, spring height and spring thickness when 3D printing a spring in PLA.
Use safety glasses when operating the PLA Spring Motor Demonstrator. While I’ve operated the mechanism well over a hundred times without a failure, I always recommend erring on the side of caution as the spring could snap and send pieces flying where they shouldn’t be flying, and that’s never a good thing.
Designed using Sketchup 8, and printed in PLA on a Makerbot Replicator 2 using Makerware 2.3.3.42.
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!