EDIT- As of 2/20/24 I have replaced the foam insert in the spine with rubber tubing of the same size. It provides better support, which let me loosen the steel cable a little to make the spine more flexible. I was also able to remove the side lines of monofilament after adding the stronger tubing so now everything is less complicated and works better.
I've always loved the imagery of the Predator triumphantly holding up the spine and skull that he had just ripped out of someone as a trophy in the movie Predator 2. After printing the realistic skull last week I got inspired to print an entire spine to attach to it. The spine model I used does not match up perfectly to the skull (but pretty good) so I had to figure out a way to attach them together. I also had to figure out a way to eliminate the weak ball and socket joints that the spine prints with. I damaged several of those connections while test fitting things and once connected they would pop apart far too easily. I want to be able to handle this thing, so I opted to cut off the ball and sockets and drill a hole through each one to pass a cable through. The spine does not print with the sacrum, but fortunately someone had already created one to fit it. After a lot of tinkering not shown in this video I got it assembled and it looks pretty awesome. Not quite as much "wiggle" as I had hoped for, but I might be able to fine tune that some by adjusting tensions.
These are the models I used off of Thingiverse...
SKULL - www.thingiverse.com/buzzsaw_s...
SPINE - www.thingiverse.com/thing:480...
SACRUM - www.thingiverse.com/thing:644...
The PLA Filament I used - amzn.to/42qFOw7
I used a Bambulabs P1S for my prints. I printed them in PLA, but they might be better printed with stronger materials, especially the cervical vertebrae and the sacrum, where the most stress is on them.
31 янв 2024
