Hexy the 3D Printed Spiderbot Tutorial

Difficulty:

3D Printing

3D print the following parts:

Assembly

Prepping the Femurs, Base, Faceplate, and Gears

Femurs

Start by using a heat gun and heat the hole on the femur. Make sure to keep the heat gun on low and a safe distance away from the femur. Only heat the hole of the femur enough to loosen the plastic just enough to insert the ball stud. Insert the ball stud, ball side up, into the femur hole from the bottom side. Use a socket screwdriver to apply even pressure when pushing the femur into the ball stud. 

Baseplate

To prepare the base plate you will need a soldering iron and the #2-56 x 0.115″ heat-set inserts for plastics and M3-0.5 x 3mm inserts for injection molding. The #2-56 x 0.115″ inserts will go through the topside of the base plate (side without grooves) while the M3-0.5 x 3mm inserts will go into the bottom side (side with the grooves). Adjust the temperature of the soldering iron to around 320°C. Place an insert on top of a designated hole, then use the soldering iron to heat the insert and slowly push it into the base plate. Reference the diagram below to figure out which inserts go in which hole. 

*IMPORTANT*

Keep the soldering iron perpendicular to the surface to ensure that the inserts are not going in at an angle. This is particularly important to keep the screws that go into the gears and motors leveled.

Faceplate

Repeat the same procedure as the baseplate for the faceplate using  #2-56 x 0.115″ heat-set inserts.

Gears

Repeat the same procedure as the baseplate for the gears using the M3-0.5 x 3mm inserts for all gears.

Assembling the Femurs

Run the femur through femur slide making sure the femur is being inserted into the side of the femur slide that has the extrusion. Insert 2 steel ball bearings to the top and bottom femur rails. The entry point for the balls is on the side with the ball stud. 

Take 2 femur yokes and place them on the femur slide so that they enclose the extrusion. Insert the legs of the femur yoke into the femur yoke sleeve and insert the exposed leg into the designated hole on the base plate. Repeat for all 6 assembled femurs.

Assembling the Gears

This assembly process is only for the idle gears. Place a shielded metal bearing into the slot of the idle gear. Next, orient the anchor so that the extrusions are on top so the inner part of the anchor can hold the inner race of the steel bearing. Line up the extrusions to the grooves inside the gear and slowly press it in. Be careful when inserting these anchors as applying too much pressure can break them. 

After placing in the anchor, take a gear spacer and insert it into the gear. Insert a  M3-0.5 x 12mm button head cap screw through the topside of the gear and out the back through the spacer. 

After assembling the all the femurs, screw the ball stud into all the 30 teeth idle and driver gears. Use a 5mm wrench or pliers to screw in the ball stud.

Note: If you plan to remove the bearing later you cannot reuse the same anchor and will need to print a new one to refasten the steel bearing.