Print a Helicone! (Tinkercad/3D Printing)

So a little while back I discovered the incredible 3D artist John Edmark - seriously, check his stuff out, it's incredible!!

He'd invented something called a helicone - a tree like structure that resembles a helix but after being spun it transforms into a pinecone and then back again when spun the other way! I was pretty mesmerised by it and I reallywanted one!!

Now, this is not an exact copy - it's certainly inspired by the original but if you want one exactly like John Edmark's, you can buy them on his website or through Amazon - I'm trying to challenge myself in terms of designing new models and trying to get into creating my own rather than buying wherever possible so I thought I'd see if I couldn't reverse engineer something similar from the photos and videos!

If you just want the stls I made, feel free to jump ahead to the 'Print' step where I've included my stls but if you're interested in making your own or following my design process then I'll be running through that first :)

You can also just download my STLs here on Thangs for free

Supplies

Tinkercad - for making your own/modifying my design

3D printer

Filaments - I think it looks best using at least 2 different colours if you have them!

Glue - standard superglue is fine

Optional but recommended - Steel Rods- You can print the rod but it tends to bend and not work as well so I'd recommend something rigid like these, they were less than £2 each.

Step 1: Making the Branches - Creating the Overall Shape

Let's start with the most involved piece - the branches!

These are made up of some very simple shapes really but I'm going to spread the process out over a few steps so I can include lots of pictures and screenshots - I find that pictures are significantly easier to follow than words with things like this!

Let's start with the overall shape:

Take a cylinder shape (20x20x2mm) and place it on the workplane
Take a box shape (60x8x2mm) and align it with the cylinder so it runs across the centre
Take a shape of your choice - I used hearts (25x27x2mm) and place one at each end of the box shape

You've now created the basis for every branch you'll print!

Step 2: Making the Branches - Creating the Holes! 1/2

Next we'll create the holes in the branch pieces that allow it to slot onto the rod and which enable the transformation when it spins!

I've again split this into 2 parts just so it's easier to follow!

Take a cylinder (20x20x2mm)
Place a cylindrical hole in the centre of your cylinder (10x10mm)
Place a box shaped hole (20x3mm) aligned with the centre of the original cylinder
Make a duplicate of the box hole and rotate it by 69 degrees before grouping the cylinder with all 3 holes
Cut away the larger sections that are left - I just used several box shaped holes

You should be left with 2 small arc shapes at this point

Step 3: Making the Branches - Creating the Holes! 2/2

Let's finish what we started!

Add a cylindrical hole (5x5mm) and align it with the centre of your 2 arcs
Add another cylindrical hole (3x2.3mm) and line it up with the edge of one of the arcs
Repeat the last step so you have a cylindrical hole on each end of each arc
Make your arcs into holes and group everything
Make a duplicate of the whole shape and rotate it 90 degrees
Group everything again

You now have the shape you need to cut out the holes in every branch!

Step 4: Creating the Branches

Finally let's put everything together and start creating our branches of various sizes.

For our first branch, just take a copy of the branch shape we made in the first step and centre a copy of the hole shape we made in the last 2 steps with the cylinder in the centre.
I decided to add numbers to mine so they'll be easy to identify when I'm assembling it later - Just use the text shape as a hole for this.
Once you're happy with the placement of your text, group all of the shapes together.

You just created your first branch!

To create the other branches, simply repeat the process but shift the shapes on the end outwards by 2mm each for each branch
You'll also need to rotate the hole in the centre by 22.5 degrees each time

I've included a picture of branch 1 and 2 on top of each other so you can see how the holes in the centre overlap and how branch 2 is just a little longer than branch 1.

For my helicone, I created 39 branches

I wanted it to get wider towards the middle so:

For branches 1- 20 I made each branch 4mm longer than the last
For branches 21-39 I made each branch 4mm shorter than the last

This isn't a difficult process but I do appreciate it's a bit monotonous and time consuming!
I think you could get away with less branches to be honest - this did turn out quite big in the end!!

Step 5: Creating the Spacer

Next up we need to make the bit that makes it all work - this tiny little spacer that sits between each branch!!

Start with another cylinder shape (20x20x2mm) and raise it 2mm above the work plane
Place a cylindrical hole in the centre (5x5mm) and group to leave a ring shape
Add 2 cylinders (2.5x2.5x6mm) on opposing sides of the ring - these should pass through the ring and out of the other side
- To check they're positioned correctly, take your first 2 branch pieces and centre them over the spacer, the 2 cylinders should sit neatly within the cut-outs in the branch as shown in the picture
Once everything is lined up, group the ring with the 2 cylinders

You've just created the spacer that will sit between each branch and create the helicone effect!

Step 6: Last Bits!

Finally, we just need to make some very simple last pieces!

We need to make a cap for the topto stop the branches coming off and a ring to go at the bottom to hold everything up.

I'll also create a printable rod though I do strongly recommend using a metal rod if you can get ahold of one - I tried printing one and it just had too much flex in it which made it quite awkward to spin!

Let's make the cap first

Take a cylinder (20x20x7mm) and place it on the work plane
Using a small cylindrical hole (5x5mm) make a cut out that runs 4mm deep into the original cylinder

Done!

Let's make the ring next

Take another cylinder (20x20x5mm)
Using a cylindrical hole (5x5mm) cut a hole that runs all the way through - leaving a ring behind

Finally to create a printable rod

simply create a cylinder (4.5x4.5x240mm)

Step 7: Print!

So now you've got all your pieces you can just export them as stls - or if you want my stls, just grab them, they are available for free here on thangs!

There are a lot of pieces but they're quick and easy to print!

With the exception of the spacers, all parts of this print are pretty straightforward to print and can be printed in draft quality, flat on the bed with no support/rafts/brims etc.

I'll make a few recommendations for the spacers though as they're probably the most important and fragile part of this model:

I strongly recommend printing these in PETG or something stronger than PLA - my first batch were printed in PLA and they worked fine but I did have a few fail after a little while - PETG has held up much better so far.
If you trust your printer and you're more patient that me, I suggest printing them on their sides - printing them flat means the layer lines run horizontally so it's easier for the pegs to break off - they'll be much stronger if the layer lines run vertically
Finally, these are the one part of the model that will need to be printed with supports!

Step 8: Assembly Time!

Finally it's time to put this allllll together!!

This is a pretty simple build but might take a few minutes

Take your rod and the cap and glue the cap to the end of the rod
- Wait for the glue to dry fully before continuing to the next step
Next, taking one branch at a time starting with number 1, layer branches and spacers, ensuring they are aligned and form a spiral as you go
Finally, once you're sure everything is correctly in place - it should look like the picture above - glue the ring in place
- It should be glued to both the last branch and to the rod itself so the ring and bottom branch should not be able to rotate at all once the glue is dry
- It should also hold all of the branches and spacers fairly snuggly together - they should not be so tight they can't rotate but should not have space between them.

Once the glue is all dry, you've done it - you've made your own helicone!!