Fully Functional Platform Jack is Amazingly 3D Printable as One Piece — No Supports Required

Within the the desktop 3D printing space, there are some 3D printable open source designs that have virtually become legends among the many. These are objects that can be downloaded and 3D printed free of charge, that exhibit functionality that proves to the world that 3D printing is capable of creating much more than simple doodads. Some examples might be the 3D printable working 5-speed transmission, as well as more simple creations such as the LeFabShop Elephant. However, a particular design, which has the potential to become one of the most popular and most downloaded designs we’ve seen in a long time, is the newly released Platform Jack, created by a Seattle-based company called intentional3D.

Their design for the 3D printable Platform Jack is nothing short of amazing. Typically when we download designs to 3D print, we try to avoid objects that require a lot of support material, quite frankly because support removal can be a pain in the neck. Also we usually look for objects which don’t require much assembly, as assembly usually means multiple parts, and potentially longer print times. Unfortunately though, it is very difficult to find fully functional designs that don’t require a lot of support or the printing of multiple parts. This is what makes the Platform Jack so unique and so amazing.

The Platform Jack is printed in one single piece, although it features several movable parts. At the same time, it requires no printing of support material and is fully functional right off of your 3D printer’s print bed. It merely requires a slight turn of the knob, which breaks a tiny connection point, to begin using the device. As you can see in the animated image and the video at the bottom of this article, turning the threaded knob clockwise causes the scissor arms to be sucked in, thus lifting and separating the top and bottom platforms from each other. Turning it counter-clockwise does the opposite, bringing the two platforms closer and closer together until they ultimately touch one another.

The design, which was originally uploaded on July 16th, has since been iterated upon in order to make it function better. Initially some people were having an issue where the scissor arms came off of their printer fused together, thus not allowing it to operate correctly. Intentional3D, however, has since modified the design, by increasing the tolerance from 0.5 to 0.65mm to ensure this fusing does not take place.

So far, dozens of people have downloaded and printed this design out, and it is quickly becoming one of those unique 3D printable legends among the many. What you opt to do with your 3D printed Platform Jack is up to you, but so far, we’ve seen it used as a smartphone holder, a platform for figurines, and more.

What do you think about this unique 3D printable creation? Discuss in the 3D Printed Platform Jack forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the video made by 3D Printing Nerd below: