Turner's Dodecahedron

In this Instructable I will show you how to create a Dodecahedron (12 sided platonic solid) using Pro/Creo software. The topics i use and the techniques that are demonstrated can also be applied to other CAD/CAM software's. The original design for this object was based off of a challenge that was presented to apprentice machinists. They were given a cube which had three or four smaller cubes within it, they were all free to move about but could not fall out. I have taken this concept and expanded it into a more complicated and more advanced shape.

Step 1:

In this step the  bottom half of the dodecahedron will be created from 6 identical pentagons. The links bellow will show you the step-by-step method of how to create it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLImO2ZXkQs&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lob29LWcww&feature=relmfu

Step 2:

Here I will be showing you how to properly mirror the bottom half and make the object a complete solid. Again the bellow link will direct you to a more detailed description.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxegOKHbF6Y&feature=relmfu

Step 3:

In this last step I will explain how to create and use a simple User Defined Function to simply and easily place the patterns of the holes. The bellow link will take you to the final step-by-step video. Also bellow are the dimensions for the four holes as promised in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kVCqWPzXZk&feature=relmfu

As mentioned in the video's here are the dimensions for the holes:

Smallest ----> Largest

0.5" Dia, 2.25" Depth
1" Dia, 1.5" Depth
1.5" Dia, 1.15" Depth
2" Dia, 0.75" Depth

Step 4:

The final product was printed using a Rapid Prototyping machine at my school. This print too approximately 36 hours!!! Please post any questions you may have or any of your own alterations/final products! Enjoy.

P.S. I have also attached my .prt file and the holes UDF that I created in the video. To use these they will have to be in the same working directory as one another.

Comments

[kroner]

Very nice.

If you take a sharp blade to it and start with the smallest dodecahedron, you can cut each one free from the next one and end up with a dodecaherdon within a dodecahedron within a dodecahedron, etc, etc..

[SHIFT!]

Rhombus! This is a truly awesome project, worthy of any DM's brigade.

[SlickSqueegie]

That thing is very very cool! Nice job. What is it made of? Did you use a CNC to cut it?

[LoganCowley]

Thanks! I used used a 3D printer to make it, it just uses cartridges of PVC plastic and it lays it down in 0.003" layers until the model is complete.