TAGGED
Mechanism
12 designs tagged “Mechanism”.
Board games / Accessories / Timers
Ticking Turn Timer — wind-up escapement, no electronics, no metal parts
A real mechanical escapement you can print: wind the knob, let go, and a foliot bar rocks tick-tick-tick while an arrow creeps back over the dial — silence means the turn is over. All 7 parts print flat and supportless; the only non-printed items are two coins used as tuning weights. NOTE: this is a mechanism demonstrator / desk toy, NOT an accurate timer — see the description.
Toys & mechanisms / Mechanical
Wand Through the Wall — a Straight Wand Passes Through a Curved Slit
A dead-straight wand on a little turntable swings clean through two CURVED slits in a wall, twice per turn, without bending. The wand is skew to the axis, so it sweeps a hyperboloid; the wall cuts that in a hyperbola, and that is the slit. Four flat supportless parts, formula engraved on the base.
Toys & mechanisms / Fidgets
Oldham Coupling Fidget — Offset-Shaft Constant-Velocity Demo Toy
A desk fidget that demos the Oldham coupling: spin the bottom knob and the top knob tracks it 1:1 even though the two shafts are parallel but laterally offset. A floating middle disc carries the rotation while its centre orbits a little circle. Five printed parts (4 unique designs), all flat and supportless. Useless, just fun.
Toys & mechanisms / Mechanical
Pop-Up Toaster — Toy with a REAL Spring-Launched Pop
A pretend-play toaster that actually works: press the side lever DOWN and it clicks down and latches; push the side EJECT buttons and POP — both toast slices spring up out of the slots. Real printed coil springs and a self-engaging sear latch, just like a 1950s toaster. No glue, snap-together, kid-safe energy budget.
Jewelry & accessories / Earrings
Spider Drop Earring — the spider actually SWINGS on its dragline
An orb web with a spider hanging below it on a dragline that is a real pivot, not a printed line. The dragline's top end is an eye captured on a post at the web hub and closed by a cap, so the spider is a free pendulum that swings side to side as you move. Print-in-place: one flat plate, two bodies, no supports, nothing to assemble. 20.0 x 40.1 x 4.9 mm, ~0.6 g. Print two for a pair.
Toys & mechanisms / Fidgets
Trammel of Archimedes — Do-Nothing Machine Fidget
A classic 'do-nothing machine': a gloriously useless desk fidget. Crank the knob and the arm traces a perfect ellipse over an engraved groove — and that's it, it does nothing else, forever. Two dovetail sliders shuttle in perpendicular channels; a knobbed crank arm snaps onto both. 3 unique parts (print the slider twice), all flat, no supports. Honest heads-up: the motion is not glass-smooth — at the crossroad a slider can catch and need a tiny nudge.
Decorations / Magnets
Weather Dial Fridge Magnet — spin it to today's weather
A fridge magnet with a live front. Thumb the knurled rim through the side notch and the dial clicks into four detented positions — sun, rain, cloud, snow — showing one icon at a time through the porthole. The three magnets are sealed inside solid plastic on both faces: no glue, no exposed metal against the door, nothing to fall out. They go in during the print, at a single pause. The dial ships as five files sharing one coordinate frame, so it prints in five colours with nothing to group by hand. Prints supportless. Parametric OpenSCAD source included.
Desk & office / Display Stands
Cyclo Turntable — 15:1 fine-adjust manual display base
A hand-cranked 15:1 cycloidal-drive turntable. Thumb-roll the knurled drum through a side window and the top platform creeps around 15× slower with near-zero backlash — a whole finger swipe nudges your object just 2–4°. Beautiful gearing to fidget with and to watch. Honestly kind of useless: it's a mechanism, not a product — a manual, slow-turning little pedestal. 5 printed parts, no supports, PLA.
Toys & mechanisms / Mechanical
Desk Gyroscope — two-axis gimbal flywheel (a toy, not a tool)
A heavy-rim flywheel spinning in a two-axis gimbal on a pedestal — pull the string and the spin axis holds its direction while you tilt the base. A desk toy and physics demonstrator, nothing more.
Desk & office / Organizers / Modular
Moku Iris Box — Working Camera-Aperture Catch-All (Base Rail module)
A round fluted catch-all box for the Moku modular desk system whose lid is a WORKING 6-blade iris diaphragm — twist the knurled collar and the blades spiral open like a camera aperture onto the cavity (Ø48 mm) for clips, SD cards and coins. Same-plane pinwheel iris: 6 identical rigid blades on pivot posts, drive pins riding radial collar slots, snap-on collar, 1-minute no-order assembly, zero supports. Clips onto the host Base Rail by the reverse-measured foot interface. A remix of the Moku Base Rail by @SabreDesign / @Collecticraft.
Toys & mechanisms / Mechanical
Lazy-Tongs Snapping Dragon — extending scissor grabber
A lazy-tongs scissor reacher themed as a dragon: squeeze the tail and the neck telescopes out while the head snaps shut — one motion, one moving mechanism.
Toys & mechanisms / Mechanical
Squeeze Breeze — Trigger-Spun Fan Toy (no batteries, mechanical novelty)
A no-batteries mechanical novelty: squeeze the finger trigger and a multi-blade propeller on a flywheel spins up through a one-way ratchet, then coasts between squeezes. A satisfying hand-powered fidget that LOOKS like a hand fan. NOTE: it's a toy — the spinning blades move only a faint wisp of air, not a real cooling breeze. Multi-part, every part prints flat and supportless. Fully parametric OpenSCAD.