Compliant Mechanisms & Mark Rober's Nerf Gun | Real 3D Printed Products

Check out Mark's full video here:

Today we explore the power of compliant mechanisms by taking a look at a 3D printed blaster designed by Mark Rober and a team of BYU students.

We cover what compliant mechanisms are, and how they can change the way we look at designing and manufacturing products. We also break down some of the manufacturing challenges that might come up with Mark's design and discuss some design tweaks we might make to improve manufacturability for mass production 3D printing.

If you're interested in more real-world examples of 3D printed products, don't forget to comment and subscribe to Slant 3D for future content.

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[slantd]

Do you guys think Mark Rober's channel will blow up one day?

[Premier-Media-Group]

Love that Slant3D goes out of their way to highlight smaller YT channels like this!

[LibertyEver]

When Joerg from The Slingshot Channel sees this, he'll make a semiautomatic version from wood that uses a magazine of 30 mini crossbow bolts and propels them at 950 feet per second.

[calebweldon]

I’m a mechanical engineer and we often avoid compliant mechanisms because they wear down faster and are harder to repair; but in certain cases they let you do stuff you simply can’t do otherwise

[No_Way_NO_WAY]

This thing should be easy to injection mold with some minor changes to the cocking mechanism and trigger group.
The narrow lines from the compliant mechanism vs the thicker lines of the frame can be mitigated with additional injection points.

[slantd]

Let us know what improvements YOU would make to Mark Rober's Nerf Gun, and if you think we should redesign it in another video.

Thanks for watching!

[LibertyEver]

I know engineers. They love to change things.
- Dr. Leonard McCoy

Hells yeah I want to see a remix of the Mark Rober's nerf gun!

[jonnyhifi]

Seeing you talk through an improved design and indeed designing it would be really interesting. Yes please !

[MAGSHowToVideos]

Yes you should improve it. I would also suggest adding a magazine to the front. You should be able to print a spring inside allowing the gun to still be one piece. The tricky part would be figuring out the best way to load it.

[JohnRuckart]

Obviously I knew you were kidding, but I literally laughed out loud when you said a small YouTuber

[cuplove]

Look at the mechanism that adjusts the mirrors of JWST -mcoarse and fine adjustment in one construction- looked genius to me !

[MichaelPetito]

Printed one of these myself and was a bit disappointed with the tumbling bullet. I'll have to try the dual density approach! Also the "raft" idea doesn't seem like it would work well. Wouldn't it introduce friction as each of the fins flex along that new surface?

[Niohimself]

These are all good improvements... BUT a fully 2D version is interesting too, cause you can make it out of sheet metal using any 2D process (waterjet cutting, laser cutting, etc).

[xTerrene]

If we get more engineering YouTubers making videos like this and so on, products like this can actually become a reality and I love that idea

[andrewglick]

At 4:44, you suggest making the bottom surface solid and having the compliant mechanism above that--how would you make sure that the compliant mechanism is able to move on top of the solid surface without fusing to it? Support material doesn't seem like it would work there and it also seems too complex to rely on bridging alone.

[Yuriel]

Just printed this this week, had already come too most of the same conclusions about improving the strength of the launching mechanism. But your ideals for the ammo are very insightful as well. Great work, hope you do an improved version soon!

[adityashinn]

1:28 it doesn't have to be made with 3D printing, stuff like this can also be made pretty easily with lasercutting

[chungdha]

Instead of just talking about it, better design it and make an improved one version to show the difference, as now just all talk and not really means what you said really improves it.

[DerpD]

Just printed that out last night, yes I would like to see a redesign always have great ideas

[j-tibz]

A thicker version I think makes a lot more sense. I would also get rid of the contoured handle, so that it can be scaled up or down without having to drastically affect the ergonomics