3d printed ghostkube

Inspired by a toy I saw recently online, names as "Ghostkube". "Ghostkube" is a toy that are cubes connected together with "invisible" hinges, and you can freely connect the cubes together to form many fascinating structures that can blow your mind as it transforms into different shapes.

I still didn't understand how the original ones are connected together, as I can't see any obvious hinges that allow toolless attaching and detaching. So eventually I came up of designing my own version with my own "toolless attaching and detaching" mechanism in mind.

Each cube has 12 edges to attach linkage. Each linkage has a partly flexible central structure that allow linkage to attach and detach to the cube easily with high durability.

The cube has 3 square holes passing through the center, which saves both filament and print time. The square holes are aligned at 45 degree angle which needs no support material here.

Have fun printing and playing it like LEGO and make some incredible static/dynamic strucutres!

To connect a linkage to one of the cube edge, first insert one side of linkage's spherical bulge into cube's dent, and slightly bend central part of linkage so that another side's bulge can fit into another dent.

The example shown in the picture requires 16 cubes and 20 linkages.

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Creality

Printer:

Ender 3

Rafts:

Yes

Supports:

Yes

Resolution:

200

Infill:

38

Filament: Any PLA

Notes:

Linkages are better to print with raft on, 100% infill, no support.
Cubes are better to print with raft off, 15~25% infill, with support.

Printing cubes takes time, be patient.