3D-printed portal gun replica
Just finished my first large 3D-printing project. For sure I couldn’t pass by when I saw this amazing portal gun replica from @KirbyDowney_65 on Printables. Here I’d simply like to share some highlights and happy moments I had while doing it.
I started by printing claws and assembling them, as they seemed the most fragile and tricky to assemble, but not so time-consuming when printing.
A few more printing sessions and the remaining black parts were also done:
The forearm and back cover plates took the most time to print - approximately 16 hours.
“Glass” tube in the middle with transparent filament:
I had to wait for a couple of days for the missing electronic components to come.
Before ordering everything, I decided that I should have a plan and prepare the schema.
At arrival of the components I decided to materialize the schema without putting everything in place before assemblying.
I produced the signature portal-gun sound in Audacity before uploading it to the sound module, but the schema/sound were way too quite. I had to sacrifice the quality and make it clip in order to make the sound noticeable. It still worked out quite okay for the sake of having a noticeable “td-tss” at a button press.
For the back part I decided not to drill the holes for the buttons and the power-bank, but to re-print the back part with the right-size holes. To reduce the risk I printed a slice of a lid, which allowed me to test and adjust the hole tolerances.
For the power bank, I experimented with different tolerances and printed debug rings to ensure a snug fit, though it still ended up being a bit too tight. Well, now I have a portal-gun-size functional power bank
Concerned that something might go wrong, I opted not to glue everything together. Instead, I printed a few connectors to keep the assembly intact for photos.
Before glueing everything together - drilled a small hole on the side to allow charging.
And here is the final result:
I also fulfilled an old wish of taking a photo with the portal gun next to a mysterious structure in our park, which seemed fitting for the theme.
