I threw together a 3D printed Strandbeest a while back, just for the heck of it. I made it as light as possible and all the linkage bars were 1mm thick. It worked fine when turned by hand, but what's the point of a Strandbeest that has to be powered by hand? You want to it to walk on its own. So eventually I got around to making a motor/gearbox drive for it. Unfortunately, since the bars were only 1mm thick, they bent very easily and the Strandbeest couldn't support its own weight. So, I had to redesign.
The new strandbeest changes all parts to 3mm thick. I also replaced the 3D printed axles with stainless steel axles, because the 3D printed axles were far too delicate. Looking back, I might have been able to 3D print them horizontally instead of vertically and have them work fine, but there were still stiffness problems so I'm not going to worry about it. Anyway, it works very well now and it walks under motor power. Wooo.
The new strandbeest changes all parts to 3mm thick. I also replaced the 3D printed axles with stainless steel axles, because the 3D printed axles were far too delicate. Looking back, I might have been able to 3D print them horizontally instead of vertically and have them work fine, but there were still stiffness problems so I'm not going to worry about it. Anyway, it works very well now and it walks under motor power. Wooo.
STL files are available on GrabCAD.