I would like 3D print an extendable lance that is based off this character from league of legends Rell.
Her lance extends when she attacks I want to replicate this in a 3-D print.
I sketched out my plan for the lance on paper before I went to fusion. My plan what that I would use a printed spring to push out the inner part of the lance which would then have the outer part extended apart looking like the game.
I would then lock it in place using a system like an canopy button latch, that would allow it to stop at a when it was fully retracted.
I designed a test print with a printed spring and the button latch.
The print came out pretty good except for the button latch, it broke as soon has I placed it in the hole for it.
Here is a video of the big spring working. Unfortunately I don't think this is gonna work the 3D printed springs are just not reliable enough.
I started by making the handle 1.50 inches. Then I extruded it by 5 inches.
I then added a 50 thou for tolerance between the handle and guard.
I then started the guard by making a sketch circle 7.5 inches wide.
I then made a line so I can loft the guard down to match the lance from the game.
I then made added the inner guard sketch and made the outer one 4.5 inches so that I can loft it to make the guard accurate to the game.
For some reason when I lofted just the outer circle it would still loft the whole sketch.
I sloved this by just cuting out the part that wasn't supposed to loft. I then extruded the handle further out by another 5 inches.
I could then extruded the guard into the lance part.
as you can see there is still tolerance between the guard and handle.
While designing the handle and guard I came up with another way to expand and retract the pole of the lance. It was based off of a sliding latch and the latch part would be on the handle, this way in order to extend the pole you would push the handle into the guard and latch it.
Before I designed the latch on a circular part I wanted to see how I would cut it out. I started with extruding a block. I then sketched out a line and two others to the side.
I then added a circle at the base of the line this will be used to cut out the latching mechanism.
I then used the path tool and selected the little jet out I made, I then made the cutting size the same has the first cut. Then I filleted the sharp cornners.
I now know how I am going to achieve the sliding latch.
I then wanted to see how I would hard it would be to do this in a cylinder, so I made a large one so I could easily see what I was doing.
I then made a sketch of the sliding latch.
I started by making a line at the top of the cylinder I made the line the full length of the cylinder and divided it by thirds.
I then did it three more times.
I also made a circle that was 300 thou wide.
I then made another circle that was the width of the cylinder. and I made a line that was at a 60 degree angle from the center of the circle.
I then used the trim tool to cut out the extra parts of the circle that I don't need.
I then added a 0.5 inch line from the end of the 60 degree angle and another line that is 0.15 going in the oppisite direction.
Then using the next line that was a third of the cylinder I did the same process.
I then used the sweep tool with the 0.3 inch circle to make the main slot for the sliding latch. And then I used the pipe tool to make the extruding parts from the main slot. Then I filleted the cornners.
I then used the pipe tool again to make the latching point of the latch. I then filleted it again.
Now that I have made a bigger version of the sliding latch I wanted to make one that was the same measurements as the lance. I started out by making a sketch of the handle and adding a 0.3 inch cricle.
The reason I had the circle in the first sketch is so I don't have to use the sweep tool to add it in. I also made the test print 4 inches so that it wasn't to long but it is enough that I can still test the sliding latch.
I then followed the same steps as I did on the bigger cylinder, by first making the sketch and then extruding the slots for the latch.
I then made the sketch for the inner part of the handle making it 50 thou smaller then the outer part of it, I then extruded the inner handle 4 inches.
I then added another sketch and a circle that was 0.25 this will be the part the holds the part together.
I then extruded the part up and filleted it so that it would be able to slide in the slot of the sliding latch easily.
I then realized that having the inner and outer be the same length would be hard to grab it so I extended it by and inch.
I then started the print.
The print came out pretty good except the print failed near the top of the inner handle but that was after all the important printing was finished. And as you can see the sliding latch works pretty well, but when the inner handle is pushed up it is easy for it to get out.
A way that I figured I could fix it is by extending the back of the latching part to 0.5 instead of 0.15. Now the latch will be less likely to get pushed out.
Now it is time to bring this sliding latch into the main design of the lance
I started by using the project tool to project the hole of the guard. From the top of the circle I made a line going into the guard 0.3 plus 0.5 inches deep. The reason for the 0.3 is because I don't want the hande to slide out of the bottom of the guard, and the 0.5 is because that is the center of the latching part of the sliding latch.
I then from the 0.8 deep line I made a circle going straight down to the bottom of the circle. Then from the center of that circle I locked a line it at 60 degrees and brought it up to the circle edge. I was then able to follow the same steps from the prototyping to make the latching part.
I repeated the same steps on the oppisite side of the guard.
Then using the pipe tool I cut out the cavern for the sliding latch.
But while I was cutting out the caverns I noticed that at the end of the guard there was an ugly square because of how it cut. So what I did was I added an extra line from the first one at the top of the circle. The first pipe tooling path then updated and cut out the square.
I then continued to use the path tool to cut out the rest of the caverns.
I then used the fillet tool to fix the sharp cornners.
From the first latching part I backed it up 0.5 so that I could desing the rest of the lance while it was in the closed position.
Then following the same thing I did in the prototyping I made the nub on the top of the handle.
As you can see when the handle is spun into the correct position it will sit at the back and will be in the closed position.
I measured distance between the two positions on the sliding latch and it mesures out to 3.40 Inches. This means that the handle is going to go 3.4 inches deep into the guard, that only leaves 2 inchs to hold onto while the lance is extended.
So, I just extended the back of the handle by 3 inches.
I then made a sketch at the tip of the lance and added a 2.5 inch circle. Then using the part that I had extruded earlier I used the loft tool to connect the two parts.
But, again the loft closed the entire thing, so I added another circle at the end of the guard to cut out the part that was supposed to be air.
At this point though I thought that the guard being just stright looked weird so I deleted it and instead I just lofted all.
But again I had to cut out part that was supposed to be air.
Now it is time to cut the pole into the four different sections.
The first one had to be 5 inches because thats how long the sliding latching mechanism is.
I then made another sketch and projected the whole lance.
Then at the 5 inches I had a line going up at 80 degrees so that there was a diagonal slice matching the game lance. I then had a line come down at 100 degrees.
I then offset it by 0.30 inches and at the ends of the offset line i extended it and then used the trim tool to trip off the excess.
I then cut it out making sure that while it was cutting I had the handle on the inside visiblity off so that it didn't cut though that.
I noticed that at the end of the cavern it was blocked and that is not good because that is a entrance to the sliding latch, so I just cut it out.
At the tip of the lance in the game it is at a weird angle so I tried to copy that in a sketch.
I then cut them out making the shape that kinda looks like the one in the game.
I then copy and pasted the lines from the previous cut and brought them to where I wanted the second cut to be. Then using the trim tool I cut off the excess.
I then cut out the sketch.
But I wanted the tip of the lance to be connected to the handle, so I took the a sketch of the gap between the handle and guard and extruded it so that it would connect the tip with the handle.
Now it is one.
I then brought the cut that cut the tip up to infont of connecting the tip and handle.
Then using chamfering I made the tip more pointed.
I then realized that I didn't want such big gaps while the lance was retracted so I changed the 0.3 inch to 0.05 but this broke the tip and there was a bit of the filled gap on the wrong side.
To fix this I went into the sketch and added two diagonal circles so that I could loft inbetween them and as you can see it fixed the problem.
I then made the gap for the middle of the pole.
This is what it is looking like now.
But something that I realized is that when I go to turn the lance handle it is going to mess up the tip.
So I had to change all of the angled gaps into straight gaps.
Now I needed to come up with a design so that I can connect the separated parts to the handle. I came up with this design where the separated parts will slide onto the handle and then lock them selves on to it. In this design there is also wiggle room so that when the handle is extended all the separate parts extruded separately.
So to start I made a new fusion tab and made a prototype of the handle and pole.
I then made a line from the edge out 1 inch and another because the sliding latch moved 3.4 inches in between positions, so I divided it by thirds so that the separated parts of the pole would push apart from one another.
I then made the sketch for the nub on the handle, I desided to use the same side as the nub for the latch.
I then extuded it up and filleted it.
I then used the pipe tool to cut out the 0.3 inch crevasse.
But I needed my way to lock it in. I started by pojecting everything.
I then went down 0.55 and connected the edges.
I then extuded it by 50 thou and filleted it.
This is what it looked like from the side.
I then realized that it was way to big for a prototype so I cut it down a lot.
It is now ready to print.
This is what it looks like when it was finished printing, sadly it was able to easily get out of the lock so it wasn't deep enough.
I started by first downsizing it because it was to big
I then added an additional 20 thou to the lock.
I also copied it to the other side for more security.
I was then ready to print.
It had finished printing, luckly this time the lock was deep enough and it doesn't come out.
Before I add the locking mechanisms I first changed the tip to be sharper I didn't really like the design of the previous one
I started by making line from the edge of the part of the pole closer to the tip, I started with 0.5 and then I added the 3.4/3, this equation is how much each part is going to move. I then also added the 0.25 circle for the nub.
I then extuded the nub
Then following the steps from the prototyping I used the pipe tool to make the crevasse.
I then made the sketch for the lib that is going to lock the nub in.
And I extuded it and filleted it.
Then using the pattern tool I copied it to the other side.
At this time I thought that it would also be smart to copy the sliding latch mechanism for extra security.
I then went to the middle pole and started with the 0.5 and then added two (3.4/2) the reason is because this way the pole close to the tip will move 1.133 away from this pole and then this one will move. I then added the 0.25 circle at the end of the 0.5
I then extuded the nub and filleted it.
I could then use the path tool to cut out the slider.
I then designed the lock and extuded it.
I then copied it to the other side.
This is what it looks like currently.
I have to cut up the handle on the inside into pieces because firstly my printer isn't that tall and secondly all the different parts have to attach at different points. So I used the construction planes to tell were I would cut the handle up.
I then cut it up using the split body tool and the planes.
I then had to make a new sketch at the end of the handly and I used this to cut down the areas where the threads would go.
Then useing the thread tool I made the threads.
On the oppisite side of the threads I extended the handle to cover the threads.
I did this for all theaded areas.
Then useing the combine tool I cut out the threads in the extuded parts, I then offset them all by 10 thou.
The Lance is now complet and all I have to do now is print all the separate parts.