Acrylic Sunflower Magnet Sockets

[petej]

Here is an updated collection of sunflowers in petal counts from 12 to 30, including a 16-petal flower [16c] with loops at the base of each petal in addition to the inner part. I haven’t yet experimented with the extra loops version. I’ve also fussed over the other sunflowers, smoothing the loops and making them more loopy and less lumpy.

I have mostly used the 18-petal version and I’m happy with it but there may be better approaches. There are about 23 trillion variables here: petal length, loop curvature, loop size, petal count (have I reached my first trillion yet?)… And loop curvature itself is packed with variables since the curve is not an arc but a segment of a spiral. Curve experts are welcome to correct my terminology.

The many-petal versions might be useful for larger-diameter joining projects. The lower petal-count variants are intended for small joins where melting can be an issue. Also, as the diameter of the sunflower decreases, the thickness of each petal shrinks proportionally. Lower petal-counts help compensate.

Acrylic Iris.svg.zip (28.6 KB)

[Jules]

At @petej’s request, I’m going to re-post the picture of a test socket I worked up. (I had it up briefly last night then decided to wait until I had a use for it, to make sure it worked consistently.)

But what the heck…it’s a work in progress. It does seem to be stable enough to not split at the base.

[petej]

@Jules inspired me to rethink my design. I initially remodeled the 24-petal version, but when I reduced it to fit 8mm magnets the inner petals were too close together and distorted during cutting. So I reduced petal count to 12.

This works quite well, and it doesn’t look like a Loop Festival. At this point I think I’m quite done with my experiments. Here is my final (I hope) version.

Acrylic Iris V2.svg.zip (3.5 KB)

[Crisco4027]

I love this idea, and think it could very easily be exported for use with things like small batteries. Great work.

[whitehill]

Thanks, @petej. That looks very neat.