YouTube lunatic designed and 3D printed a working mechanical calculator
If you can't afford a Curta, we still don't recommend trying this: It'll eat up months of your life and all the filament you have
In a recent video, YouTuber 3D all Workshop revealed his 3D-printed mechanical calculator, a device small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand. The calculator, though limited in its functionality compared to the highly regarded Curta mechanical calculator, operates on the same principle, using the Leibniz stepped drum to perform basic arithmetic operations.
The Leibniz drum, named after its inventor Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, features teeth of differing lengths, each representing a value from one to nine, with a zero option for no activation. The YouTuber's 3D-printed calculator can perform addition and multiplication, with multiplication achieved by repeating the addition process.
However, it lacks the ability to subtract or divide due to space constraints. The project took two months and 109 separate pieces, with 17 print-hours and 90g of filament required to complete. Despite facing numerous challenges, such as binding gears and backlash, the final calculator successfully executed its tasks. While the YouTuber has not made the design available for others to replicate or purchase, other options for experiencing mechanical calculators include 3D-printing the larger Curta model or acquiring an original.
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