Fun With Tinkercad! 3D Puzzle Cube With Display Case

by moralesdanb in Design > 3D Design

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Fun With Tinkercad! 3D Puzzle Cube With Display Case

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For this project I decided to take advantage of Tinkercad's shape-driven design to create a 3D Puzzle Cube. The goal was to see how far I could push pure shape manipulation to create a puzzle that's not only aesthetically pleasing but also fun to put together.

A word about Tinkercad: It is a great beginner tool for 3D printing, it's intuitive approach works by adding and subtracting basic shapes without the need for 2D sketches. This method of design is known as constructive solid geometry (CGS) whereas traditional CAD is parametric and dimension-driven. Just because it's a beginner tool does not mean it cannot continue to be a valuable tool in your design toolkit. In fact, when absolute precision and rigid control aren't needed, Tinkercad can end up being more efficient.

Supplies

Puzzle

  1. Tinkercad
  2. 3D Printer
  3. PLA 3D printer filament
  4. and Creativity!

Display Case

  1. Laser Cutter
  2. 6mm clear Acrylic
  3. Super Glue

Tinkercad!

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Start a new Tinkercad file and place down a box shape (don’t forget to add the ruler tool for easier dimensioning.) My box measures 9 cm × 8.5 cm × 9 cm. It’s helpful to set this box as a “hole” shape so you can easily see through it while designing. The premise is simple: every puzzle piece you create must fit inside this box.

Next, place a new shape that’s smaller than the box for example, another cube.

Then, place a second shape smaller than the first. I used a triangular prism for variety.

Convert this smaller shape (the triangle) into a hole, align it inside the box, and use the Group (Union) tool. This will cut out a negative space that perfectly matches the hole shape forming one interlocking puzzle piece.

You can use this same technique to design the rest of the puzzle pieces.


  1. Add new “hole” shapes of different sizes and orientations inside the main box. Experiment with combinations of cubes, wedges, cylinders, or even imported SVG shapes.
  2. Group the shapes together to subtract them from the box. The result is another uniquely shaped puzzle piece that fits perfectly with the others.
  3. Keep track of each piece. After grouping, rename or recolor each piece so you can easily tell them apart later.
  4. Test the assembly. Periodically duplicate all your existing pieces and check if they still combine to form a clean cube. Adjust tolerances if necessary, even a 0.2 mm gap can make a big difference for 3D printing.
  5. Repeat this process until you have all your puzzle pieces complete. Depending on the complexity you want, three to seven pieces work best for a hand-sized cube. Mine has 11.

Before Printing

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  1. Slicer
  2. Select a part and export it as an .stl file format, do this for all parts
  3. Place parts into the your 3D printer's slicer
  4. Arrange your parts in a space-efficient manner
  5. Settings
  6. Set a print resolution, 0.2mm works well
  7. Add organic/tree supports only where needed, other support types are often difficult to remove
  8. Use a 15% infill or less
  9. Choose Color: Our printers use PLA and have multiples colors, mixing and matching colors will make your puzzle more pleasing to the eye

Printing

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Prepare Printer

  1. Clean your printer and check the extruder if necessary and add your chosen filament into the printer.

Begin

  1. Send your file to the printer, then initiate the print.
  2. Monitor your printer to ensure everything starts properly and check-in once in a while to ensure everything is coming out right

Display Case

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Base & Posts

  1. I quickly designed posts and a base using Inventor, this can also be done in Tinkercad
  2. Added slots to the posts to accommodate the 6mm acrylic sheets
  3. I added a recesses into the base so as to better hold the cube
  4. Being mindful of tolerances is important since I printed the posts separate from the base that would then be fitted together
  5. Print the same way as puzzle pieces

Acrylic Sheets

  1. Use vector editing software like InkScape
  2. Make Rectangles the size of the cube accommodating for the portions that go into the slots
  3. Load 6mm acryloic into your laser cutter
  4. Export PDF of the rectangles into the laser cutting software
  5. Make sure the laser is aligned and the bed properly spaced
  6. Cut the sheets

Assembly

  1. Unless you properly accounted for the tolerances of printer and laser cutter the posts, base, and sheets and friction fit everything, you might need an adhesive
  2. I used super glue to first glue the posts down then the sheets

Final Product

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Now the puzzle pieces and display come together to make the final product: A 3D Puzzle Cube With Display Case

Overall, I enjoyed the simplicity of TinkerCad as it worked really well for something like this. I consider myself well versed in tools like Inventor but I know it would have taken me significantly longer to make the puzzle pieces fit together nicely. Instead of doing the tedious math, Tinkercad made super intuitive and I like the versatility it gives.