Miniature Figure Dynamic Display

When I read about the Student Design Challenge topic of organization I started to brainstorm. I asked myself, "what are organization problems I face?" As a hobbyist, I paint lots of miniature plastic figures (around 30-40mm tall). The issue? I don't have a display for them. So, I decided to write an instructable on building a display stand for my miniatures.

(Credit to user stockto on Thingiverse for the miniature models)

-Laser Cutter

-3D Printer

-1/4" plywood sheet (around 1' x 2' should be enough)

-1/4" acrylic sheet (same size as wood stock)

-Superglue

-18 ball bearings (McMaster part #: 60355K504)

So - what makes a good display? I put a lot of work into every detail in my painting, so I want to make sure that viewers can see that effort. We will make a display that shows all the angles of each miniature display. Additionally, I want to make sure that all the displayed miniatures are visible - or rather that none are stuck in the back of the display.

A solution that will solve this problem is a planetary gear setup. This is where several 'planet' gears orbit a 'sun' gear in the center. The gears are always in contact, so as the sun spins the planets both rotate on their own axes, and also rotate around the sun - just like real planets!

Let's design our planetary gears. The included images show our finished gear assemblies. To start I chose gear sizes. All of the gears except the large central one are 40mm diameter. To make a model for them, I copied sketches from the McMaster model for the equivalent gear. To make the large gear I scaled up my previous gear. The top sun gear is so big that I cut some pockets to lightweight it. The smaller (top) gear assembly is a 1:1 ratio, all the gears are the same size. This means that the top gears will rotate more quickly than the bottom which have a very small ratio of 8:43.

Each planet gear consists of an axle, bearing, gear, and wood platform. Each part needs to be made 16 times as we have 16 planets. The wood and gear are laser cut from wood and acrylic respectively and the axles are 3D printed. Assemble all 16 planet assemblies before continuing.

The top and bottom assemblies can be made after the planet gear assemblies are made. To make these you will need planet assemblies, one bearing, a sun gear, and a 3D printed axle. The gear and axle are made as before. The bearings must be *carefully* glued into the baseplate for each assembly. Be very careful not to get glue in the bearing. Then the sun gear and axle can be added, and finally the planets.

To combine top and bottom assemblies, simply put some glue on the center peg of the bottom assembly and push it into the top sun gear axle. Once the glue dries you are done!

Finally - add some miniatures to display. Try placing different lights around the display to see what looks best. Remember, the middle four platforms will rotate the fastest.