Dodecahedral Earth

by douwe1230 in Living > Decorating

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Dodecahedral Earth

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A laser cut and engrave world made of 12 flat pieces (dodecahedral).
This is a project of mine that i almost desigent a year ago but from simple cheap wood that didn't look as good as this. I now made it from MDF wood. It engraved beautiful but cuts harder. But i love the result.
I Also now designed a stand for it this time.
I once saw on thingiverse that someone made design of the earth in triangles, this brought me to the idea to make a pentagon shaped one of this. So credits to him:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1871829

I also participate in the Maps challenge contest so if you would be so kind to vote for me, that would be very appreciated

What Do You Need

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You need some stuff to create this project:

Tools:
* Laser cutter (or a company/makerspace that can cut it for you)
* 3D printer

Material:

* Drawing/3D models (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4927790)
* MDF Wood 3/4mm 300x200mm (3mm works better) (can be found by a wood dealer or local construction market)
* M2.5x6 (3mm MDF) M2.5x8 (4mm MDF) €0,88 (https://bit.ly/37o3qpz)
* Acrylic black 3mm thick (for dutch people i can recommend this site for the acrylic: https://bit.ly/34wVmT7)
* Superglue

Construction: Step 1

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3D print the connectors. |
You need to print 20 pieces of it.

Construction: Step 2

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Start with engraving the MDF wood with your laser engraver/cutter.
I used a Chinese K40 laser cutter (bed size 310 x 210mm). I made files that are caled batch. These files are made for a laser cutter that has a cut size of 300 x 200mm or bigger. if you have a laser cutter that is smaller i also attached the losse pictures of Every pentagon.

settings for K40 is:
laserpower: 85%
speed: 350mm/s

Construction: Step 3

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Now cut the MDF wood with the laser cutter. Also cut the stand out of the acrylic.

settings for K40 is:
laserpower: 85%
speed: 10mm/s
(Need to cut 2 times)

Construction: Step 4

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Clean the parts with cleaning agent and sand it a little bit. Then let it dry for a while for a cleaner design.

Construction: Step 5

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Construct now the parts together with the screws and the connectors.
If you need help with it follow the pictures in this step.

I also used a little drip of glue on each part to make it a little bit stronger.

Construction: Step 6

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Now glue the stand together with superglue.

Construction: Step 7

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Put now the Dodecahedron Earth on the stand and you have a beautiful decoration.