Love Lock Made With an 3D Printer

Here in Cologne we have a new tradition, lovers hang an padlock on the Hohenzollern Bridge. Locked it and throw the key into the Rhine river.

This is an symbol, that the lovers belongs forever together and can not be separated.

So we thought, such a Lovelock can be made with an 3D Printer.

I made the padlock keyless. The mechanic inside of the body will click in the shackle just one time. So you can't open the padlock again.

And if you want, make your own one with your initials, we have create an OpenSCAD script and an online generator for this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_lock

Step 1: Design the Shapes

First, we  have drawn the shape and the mechanic parts in two dimensions with CorelDraw.

After that, we exported the parts as shapes.

Step 2: Design 3D

Now we can import the shapes in OpenSCAD and convert the objects by extruding the shapes into simple 3D.

Inside the heart padlock is a cavity with two free movable tongues.

If you put the shackle into the padlock, the two tongues moves to the side and click later inside the shackle. After the click, you can not pull it out again. So you can close the padlock just one time.

For a better look on the mechanism, we have print an open padlock on this pics.

Step 3: Script for the Initials

We extended the OpenSCAD script, that you can easily change the initials or write anything on the lovelock you want.

If you don’t have OpenSCAD (or don’t like it) we set the script online. Here you can change the padlock inside your browser, and download the result.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:224595

Step 4: 3D Print

After generating your individual love lock, you can print it on an 3D printer.

You can print it as the STL file is. You don't need any supports and rafts

Step 5: Finished

So, now you can lock your padlock on your right place. Maybe it is worth to make a trip to cologne to the Hohenzollern bridge.

We hope you like this lovelock, and we see many pics with your padlocks.

Greetings from Germany
Ruth and Thomas


Linklist:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:224595

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_lock