Kids Puzzle Sphere

The purpose of this puzzle is for 3D printing education. Puzzles are a good way to introduce kids to 3D printing.

Kids love puzzles and games as long as they can understand them.

I had a few requirements in mind:

1. The puzzle needed to be simple and easy for kids to assemble with small hands and limited dexterity.
2. The print needed to print and finish fairly quick within 30-45 minutes on a well tuned printer when used for 3D printing demos.
3. The design needed to be open to show others how it was made.
4. It needed to be scalable to different sizes and tolerances easily adjusted.

I searched for for existing puzzles that met this criteria and couldn't fine one that fit all categories.

So I created one in Solidworks and made it parametric so it can be easily scaled and adjusted by changing a few key dimensions using an equations table.

The puzzle uses three basic pieces. Two copies of each piece are used and when assembled they build a sphere.

I have included two sets of parts one with 0.2mm gap between parts and the other 0.3mm gap.

As with all my designs I keep them open and try to provide the STEP or my source files to help promote open design and 3D printing.