Magic Golden Snitch

This design is based on the “Magical Sphere” from Angus from Maker's Muse. I wanted to make it a bit smaller, and a bit simpler. So I started to reverse engineer his design. I was able to omit the ball bearings and to reduce the number of parts.

So I engineered the “Golden Snitch”. It runs up and down a thin line “magically” by pulling or releasing the line. With a bit exercise you can awe your public.

Of course you are completely free to use my designs non commercially, but if…. you want to support me buy me a coffee. (click on the red text)

I learned by experimenting that the paths for the line inside the top and bottom parts are very important. Every corner in that path will cause excessive friction on the line.

I printed the body parts in a gold coloured PLA and the wings and handles in silver coloured.

Extra material needed:

1. A thin, flexible, strong braided line, approx 1.5-2 meter.
2. A 3 mm diameter, 25 mm long axle (can be a cut of a M3 x 30 screw).

Print instructions 

1. Material PLA
2. Layer height „0.15 mm Quality“, Nozzle 0.4 mm  (Is important due to tight clearances, Printer should be calibrated)
3. Standard material and printer settings for PLA in Prusaslicer
4. I provided a stl file for a left and a right wing. This is basically not needed, both wing are equal.

Assembly instructions:

1. Mount the ring one turn on the bottom sphere. Be aware the bottom sphere has a right hand thread and the top sphere a left hand thread.
2. Thread the line through the bottom sphere and the ring
3. Thread line through the pulley from the larger diameter part to the smaller diameter.
4. Insure that the pulley is approx. in the middle of the line.
5. Thread the line through the top part.
6. Insert the 3 mm axle through the pulley.
7. Wind the line a few (8-10) turns on the small diameter of the pulley  and place it in the bottom part.
8. Make sure that the axle is centred  and the line is not clamped anywhere and that the pulley can rotate freely.
9. Hold the bottom and ring and pulley horizontal and place the top part on the ring. Be sure that the axle stays centered.
10. „Unscrew“ the ring at least one turn to align all the threads.
11. Carefully screw both halves with the ring together. Be sure that the threads of the bottom and top part are engaged at the same time. Do not tighten the ring too much (You might have a problem to unscrew it again).
12. Check if the line can move freely.
13. Check if the sphere moves up when you hold the line vertical und pulls the lower part of the line. When it des not move freely, or does not want to go up and down most likely your axle is not positioned correctly. Go back to step 9.
14. Insert the wings (any way you like…..)
15. Tie the handle to the line ends.

Have fun! Give feedback and publish your prints.