Showcase · 3D printing

A working planetary gearbox you can wear, printed in one piece

Spin the star in the middle and three planet gears roll around a 44-tooth ring. Every gear is trapped in place, so the pendant comes off the build plate already assembled and already turning. NativeCAD designed it, checked it and made it ready for a Bambu Lab X1 Carbon, all from a plain-English request in Claude.

The gold Labs Planetary pendant: a braided rim around a ring gear, three lettered planet gears and a star-marked sun gear, with a chain bail on top

50.3 mmacross the braided rim

14 mmhigh on the plate, bail included

≈12 gof PLA

2 coloursgold body, black lettering

5moving parts, zero assembly

0.25 mmprint clearance, checked

Download the print file (.3mf) Bambu Studio project for the X1 Carbon, gold and black already on their own spools · 1.8 MB

Top view of the pendant showing the sun, three planets and the ring — Top view

Close-up of the herringbone gear teeth and raised black lettering — Herringbone teeth, raised lettering

The pendant sitting flat on a textured build plate — How it sits on the build plate

The braided rope rim and the chain bail — Braided rim, bail for a ¼″ chain

What NativeCAD worked out

A print-in-place gearbox lives or dies on a few tenths of a millimetre. These are the checks NativeCAD ran before it handed over a single file.

Real gears, real ratio

Involute teeth at module 0.9: a 10-tooth sun, three 17-tooth planets and a 44-tooth ring. The star turns 5.4 times for every lap the planets make.

Herringbone, so it stays put

The teeth are cut in a 30° chevron, so the gears centre themselves as they turn and can't walk out of the face.

Clearance checked through the whole cycle

Every pair of moving parts was measured at 12 positions across a full turn of the gear train. Nothing comes closer than a quarter of a millimetre, so nothing fuses on the printer.

Captive, not glued

NativeCAD tried 72 escape moves on each moving part and every one is blocked. The gears spin freely and can't fall out.

Two colours, no painting

Black lettering stands 0.6 mm proud on each planet (FEATUREBOARD, NATIVECAD and LABS) and sits on its own spool, so the colour change happens on the printer.

Made to be worn

A smooth braided rope rim with 48 crossings, printed on light tree supports that stay out of the gears, and a bail sized for a ¼″ chain. It hangs straight: the centre of mass sits within 0.01 mm of the bail line.

Six planets fill the ring. Version 3 packs a 17-tooth sun and six 13-tooth planets edge to edge, so the whole face reads as one finished gearbox, with the lip and the sun flange holding every gear in from both sides. Still one print, still no assembly, and the gold-and-black lettering faces up on the front.

52.9 mmacross the braided rim

6 planetson a 43-tooth ring

≈18 gof PLA

0.9 mmbetween neighbouring planets

3.3 mmtall lettering

0 supportsin the gear train

Download v3 (.3mf) Bambu Studio project for the X1 Carbon, gold and black on their own spools · 10.1 MB

Watch it turn

Six planets, one smooth train

Spin the star and all six planets roll around the ring together, every tooth in step. Drag the pendant to turn it yourself.

Star turns 0.00 / 60 Om upright Lotus locked Home

What's new in v3

Straight from wearing v2: the train now fills the ring.

Six planets

A 17-tooth sun, six 13-tooth planets and a 43-tooth ring at module 0.9. Only 0.9 mm separates neighbouring planets.

Capped on both faces

The lip and the sun flange reach 1.85 mm over every planet tip. Nothing lifts out, tips over or wanders off.

Clearance checked on the printed file

Every gear pair measured on the finished print file: 0.26 mm between flanks, all the way round.

No supports in the gears

Every cap is a 45° cone, so the whole train prints in place on an X1 Carbon.

Lettering you can read

FEATUREBOARD across the top and LABS · NATIVECAD across the bottom, 3.3 mm capitals, facing up.

Version 2 came straight off the first print. A fourth planet fills the ring, caps on the rim and on the sun hold every gear in from both sides, the lettering moves out to the rim where it reads from across the room, and a mandala on the gear faces comes together only when the train is in phase. Still one print, still no assembly, and no supports anywhere near the gears.

The Labs Planetary v2 pendant: four planet gears around a star-marked sun, capped inside a ring lettered FEATUREBOARD across the top and LABS · NATIVECAD across the bottom, with a braided rim and chain bail

54.1 mmacross the braided rim

4 planetson a 44-tooth ring

≈19 gof PLA

6moving parts, zero assembly

3.3 mmtall lettering

0 supportsin the gear train

Download v2 (.3mf) Bambu Studio project for the X1 Carbon, gold and black on their own spools · 7.6 MB

Printed and worn

Off the plate and on the chain

The printed gold v2 pendant on a dark mat: four planet gears around the sun inside a braided rim, with the chain bail — Version 2, off the plate
Sun, four planets and ring in one gold print, already meshed and turning.

Lewis in a pink hoodie wearing the gold v2 planetary pendant on a rope chain — On the chain
Lewis wearing the v2 pendant on a gold rope chain.

Watch it lock

A mandala that only comes together in phase

An Om on the sun and a lotus on every planet. Spin the star and the picture scrambles as the planets orbit and turn. Every whole turn the Om stands upright, the lotus petals swing back to point at it every fifth of a turn, and after 7 turns the whole mandala is home again. Drag the pendant to turn it yourself.

Star turns 0.00 / 7 Om upright Lotus locked Home

The v2 pendant from a low angle, showing the capped planets and the braided rim — Capped planets, braided rim

Close-up of the four capped herringbone planets and the rim lettering — Herringbone teeth under the caps

Cut through the sun and a planet: 45 degree lips on the ring and the sun reach over both faces of the planet — Cut through a planet: the caps on both faces

What's new in v2

Everything the first print taught us, built into one file.

A fourth planet

A 12-tooth sun, four 16-tooth planets and the same 44-tooth ring. The gears fill the ring, and the star turns 4.67 times for every lap the planets make.

Capped on both faces

A lip on the ring and a flange on the sun reach 1.7 mm over every planet, top and bottom. Nothing can lift out, tip over or wander off the ring.

No supports in the gears

Every cap is a 45° cone with 0.45 mm of air, so the whole train prints in place on an X1 Carbon without a single support to pick out of the teeth.

Clearance checked through the cycle

Every moving pair measured across the gear train's turn: nothing closer than 0.25 mm, so nothing fuses on the printer.

Captive, all six

NativeCAD tried 12 escape moves on each of the 6 moving parts. Every one is blocked.

A mandala on the gears

An Om on the sun and an eight-petal lotus on each planet, in black on gold. It lines up only when the train is in phase, and comes fully home every 7 turns of the star.

Lettering you can read

FEATUREBOARD across the top and LABS · NATIVECAD across the bottom, 3.3 mm capitals with strokes two nozzle-widths thick, both reading upright.

The print

Made for the neighbour's X1 Carbon

We don't own a Bambu printer. Our neighbour does: an X1 Carbon with the AMS, which is exactly the setup this pendant was designed for.

So instead of emailing him a file and hoping, we built the whole path for him to run himself. He installs NativeCAD in Claude, asks for the pendant, and gets back a print-ready file that opens straight in Bambu Studio with the gold and black already on their own spools.

Here is how it came off his printer.

Read the walkthrough we wrote for him →

Install NativeCAD in ClaudeOne extension file, plus your output folder.
Ask for it in plain EnglishMake the Labs planetary pendant for my X1C, gold and black.
NativeCAD builds and checks itGears, clearances, captive parts, colour spools and weight.
Open it in Bambu Studio and printLoad gold and black, press print, about 121918 g of filament.