Summary

A 4 piece mechanical locket based on the prop from the movie 'The Illusionist'

It starts out oval shaped but can be twisted to form a heart, when in this heart configuration the locket can be slid open to reveal a picture.

Instructions

This was designed for print in Shapeways WSF material (although any sls printer should suffice) I've never tried this design with an extrusion printer, but the detail is too fine for there to be much chance of success.

The pieces will need some light sanding, especially on the moving parts. The only other pieces needed are:

18 1x1mm neodymium magnets
20mm of 1.6mm aluminium rod
1 dressmaking pin (or similar)

The holes for all the tiny magnets are pre printed, but may need cleaning up with a 0.8mm drill bit prior to inserting.
The same is true of the 1.6mm hinge hole.

When inserting the magnets you have to be careful to place them in the right way round, so that they will hold the locket closed, not repel it apart.

It all fits and works fine as a plastic piece, but it doesn't look great, which is why I started casting it in pewter, I'm almost done with that but haven't found the time to finish it, hopefully will soon. (I haven't labelled it as a work in progress because the files are finalised and work just fine)

A full write up of my casting experiments and progress can be found here:

http://www.therpf.com/f9/illusionist-locket-130312/

Illusionist Locket