Over on Instructables user schu51 posted a really cool guide to 3D printing and assembling a walking robot that contains only 3D printable parts and mechanics. All you need to do you make your own is print the parts, assemble them and paint your new robot however you want.
Okay, so it may be a little more involved than that but not by much, if you’ve 3D printed a few projects before then this should be a breeze. However you will need some supplies in order to make the robot as you see here. You’ll need 150 grit sandpaper in order to make sure primer will adhere to the robot parts, some Weld-On and your choice of plastic paints. Of course you can also 3D print your parts in different colour materials so you don’t have to do any painting, but that’s not any fun.
Once you’ve downloaded all of the parts and they have been cleaned, just lightly sand the surfaces and remove any excess plastic. Then coat everything with your Weld-On plastic welding solution in order to reduce the striation on the robots body. Coat each part until the surfaces are glossy and smooth and you’re ready to prime and paint your robot.
According to schu51 the model at its original size is going to be about 20 inches tall, however if that’s too much robot for you, you can always reduce it down to ⅓ scale. That should give you an 8 inch robot and all of the parts should still function correctly at that size.
You should do a complete test assembly before you glue your parts together just to make sure all of the mechanics work correctly. schu51 says that the robot arms move with him as he walks and that gives him a “clunky swagger”. He mentioned that — almost apologetically — in the comments, as if “clunky swagger” wasn’t a selling point!
If you want to read more about this swaggering robot toy you can see the Instructable and build walk through here. And if you build or customize him, please make sure you tweet me the results @SJGrunewald. You get bonus points if it’s a video of a swaggaring robot.
