Help me design a shape.

Ok GRMers, got one from the vault for you, and since yall are generally smarter than me, I need help figuring this out and potentially prototyping it. 

I need a shape. Specifically a toroid. A donut, if you will. EXCEPT, I need the cross section of the "cylinder" of the donut to be triangular. so like when you roll out a tube of dough, before you make it into a donut, and you squish that tube so it's three sided long ways. google tells me it's called a traingular prism. SO- I need a toroid made of an equilateral triangular prism joined at the ends. EXCEPT....

I need a 120* twist in it. a one third rotation in the triangle. why? I have a theory. I know how a mobius strip works, where it's technically one sided. In my head at least, this triangular toroid with the twist in it works the same way. And I want to make a continuously flowing piece of art on it that runs back into itself. Three sided. Why? Because CLEARLY I should have been a pot head, despite never having ingested a marijuana voluntarily in my life. ( I can't speak for contact highs). I could theoretically do it in clay, but I'm looking for a cleaner material. Any thoughts? Ideas? 

Sounds like an application for cad and a 3d printer. 

I'm sure that's possible in OnShape or other free software. At this time I can't mess with it, but maybe over the weekend???

Tinkercad is very much like sticker designs in Forza, and you're damn good at those

Done, where do I send it and what file format?

Well.....E36 M3. I wasn't expecting it THAT fast. Ummmm....HM. 

What format do 3d printers understand? 

thomas dot larson at geemail dot com

Send't.

Got it. 

Once again, GRM delivers. 

Get me a STEP file and I will get a part to Mndsm.

In reply to Slippery :

get me an email and i'll forward you what nonack has given me. 

This is going too well. I'm scared now. 

In reply to Mndsm :

Sent

In reply to Slippery :

should be en route. 

FYI Wed o want to see this when printed cause it kinda hurt my head reading the original post.

Mndsm said:

In reply to Slippery :

should be en route. 

Got it, will print a test part tonight. 

What kind of OD/ID are you looking for?

ULTIMATELY- pretty big. 15" OD- ID....that's a good question. I'm not really sure. 10-11"

At outset... IDK. Whatever you're comfortable running. I'm not entirely sure how this is going to work. EVENTUALLY I want to make a castable buck so I can mold these things and make em without having to have them printed. I get the feeling they'd sell. 

NOHOME said:

FYI Wed o want to see this when printed cause it kinda hurt my head reading the original post.

Just wait til you see what I want to do with it. If my theory's correct I'm gonna hurt people. 

Pictures or it didn't happen.

Unrelated, I found a whole skid of triangular tubing over at the laser tube cut building.  Isosceles not equilateral, 2.5 to 3" on the long side.

akylekoz said:

Pictures or it didn't happen.

Unrelated, I found a whole skid of triangular tubing over at the laser tube cut building.  Isosceles not equilateral, 2.5 to 3" on the long side.

I have to get the prototypes in hand first. It works in my head, I can't really model it on paper, and the easiest answer was go directly to 3d model. SO- here we are. 

Try making a prototype out of 3 strips of poster board.

I thought you might've discovered a new non-orientable shape for a minute, but it's been designed before as a "3D mobius strip" or "stellarator pendant:"

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/fc497d9a-cc41-4154-b337-280d54690ae6/M%C3%96BIUS-STRIP

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/mobius-strips-a3906ec3e14741e39547c523d3160dc7

https://www.freepik.com/premium-photo/3d-render-mobius-strip-from-cubes_20675802.htm

In reply to GameboyRMH :

Yeah, I'm not THAT cool. realistically any prismatic polygon could be oriented in this fashion and come out this way, in theory. it's a matter of basic math, where a regular mobius is 180* or 360/2, this particular one is 360/3. it should scale indefinitely- as theoretically a circle is just 360*, a cylinder is that + length, and a toroid is just a cylinder turned back into a circle. It gets weird when you take that toroid, put it on its side, turn IT into a cylinder, and then make it into another toroid. This is also infinitely scalable. 

VolvoHeretic said:

Try making a prototype out of 3 strips of poster board.

Since it is a mobius "shape" it should be capable of being made with a single flat sheet. Nonack may be able to generate the flat pattern from his model... That could provide you a way try different sizes for the effect you want.

In reply to stafford1500 :

I'm gonna pop some tags cuz this sounds berkeleying awesome. 

Mndsm said:

NOHOME said:

FYI Wed o want to see this when printed cause it kinda hurt my head reading the original post.

Just wait til you see what I want to do with it. If my theory's correct I'm gonna hurt people. 

Novel design for a poly-dimensional race slick?

In reply to NOHOME :

Think of all the treads you could have.