Home Practice & Makers Math from the Past: 3D Printed Curta Calculator

Math from the Past: 3D Printed Curta Calculator

1938 the Austrian engineer Curt Herzstark has filed a patent for a complex mechanical calculator with the name Curta. From 1947 until the 1970s the calculator was manufactured by the Contina AG. Now a software developer with the name Marcus Wu has seen the chances that are connected with 3D printing and has used them to develop his own 3D printed Curta replica.

Marcus Wu has learned how the Curta works from different YouTube videos and he liked the idea of building his own Curta with the help of 3D printing technologies. The needed parts where created with the online 3D modelling tool Onshape. The original Curta uses over 600 parts, the 3D printed one uses 240 3D printed parts and 100 other parts like springs, bolts and nuts. It was very difficult for Wu to create and build the Curta because all mechanical parts need to fit perfect to ensure that the calculator works in the way it should. Marcus Wu has used over two spools of filament until he got the machine running.

I plan on releasing the source files to the public but I need to ensure I release the corrected files and the files by themselves will not be of much use to most people — I also need to write up some tutorials for creating some tools that are necessary to build some of the parts (such as some custom springs needed) and some of my tools need revisions since there were manual alterations them after designing them.


Subscribe to our Newsletter

3DPResso is a weekly newsletter that links to the most exciting global stories from the 3D printing and additive manufacturing industry.

Privacy Policy*
 

You can find the privacy policy for the newsletter here. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. For further questions, you can contact us here.