Einstein Bust With Secret Switch

Here I will show you how to made this 3D-printed Einstein Bust, with a secret switch, that you can use to, for instance unveil you batcave, or to turn on the light in your office, or just as a fun decoration.

KEEP IN MIND: Firstly, this bust was designed to fit on my small 3D-printer, so it is quite small compared to a life-size bust. Secondly, you will of course have to hook it up to the thing you want to control.

You will need:

- A 16mm Metal Pushbutton with Red LED Ring (or just about any 16mm switch/buttom)

- Solid or Stranded Wire (doesn't matter), minimum 100mm length. (I just used some wire I had salvaged from an old speaker)

- A 3D printer and a spool of any color PLA filament (or you could use a 3D service like Shapeways)

- Four small scrap screws

- Gray spray paint or as i used, a grey spray primer (Optional: you could just stick with the color of the filament)

TOOLS:

A Soldering iron and Solder, a Hot Glue Gun and Hot Glue and a Screwdriver.

I remixed the Einstein Bust by lloyd chidgzey (LSMiniatures) on Thingiverse here. But everything else I designed myself, in Fusion 360.

1. The first step is to 3D-Print the different parts of the bust.
You can get the stl files from the link below or from Thingiverse here.

Parts to be printed: The Einstein Head, the Bottom, the Middle, the Top and the small Lock piece.

NOTICE: The Einstein Head and the Bottom will have to print with support.

As you can see on the picture of the bust finished printing, it took around 8 hours for me just to print the head. So just note that it takes quite a while to print all the pieces, but the result is worth it.

2. Remember to remove the supports from the model, before the next step.

Painting (Optional):
Now this step is completely optional, but I chose to paint mine in this grey color, to give it more depth, and to hide some of the layer lines.

We have now come to assembling the bust.

Switch/Button
1. First we have to solder wires to the switch's pins. Here I soldered wires to the led (+) and (-) pins, and to the Common (c) and Normally Closed (N/C) pins.

2. Then use hot glue to insulate the connections.

3. Now secure the switch onto the middle hole in the Top, by securing the hex nut the switch comes with, on the back.

Screwing it together
Now we have to screw it together.

1. Start by feeding the wires from the switch, throw the holes in the Middle and Bottom.

2. Now line up the Middle with the holes on the Top, and screw them together. Be sure to hold them tightly together, so the screws can screw correctly and tightly on.

Keep in mind the orientation!

3. Then do the same with the Bottom. Still keeping in mind the orientation, because it is important that the Bottom's "wire-channel" points to the back.

Adding the Head to the bust-base
1. Now take the Einstein head, and lock it onto the Top part, by sliding it onto the little "hinge" mechanism, as shown in the gif animation of the model.

2. And now to secure it, we can hot glue the small Lock piece, into place, on the back of the bust, again as shown in the gif animation of the model.

Now you should be able to tilt the head up and down.

I hope you like this project, and if you do, I would very much appreciated if you voted for me in the 2018 BigandSmall-contest on Instructables, and feel free to follow me on Instagram and Twitter (@Anders644PI) to keep updated with what I make.

The result
That's it! You have now made your very own Einstein Bust, with a secret switch, that you can use to unveil you batcave, or unlock a secret drawer, etc. Now feel free to play around with the idea, and customize it with a bust of shakespeare, or a scan of you own face for instance.