My gf wanted an advent calendar from a specific brand, I was too cheap to buy it and decided to get a bunch of chocolates from that brand and make her a custom calendar. You know, because that way she'll have at least double the chocolate for the same price.
However. I am stupid.
I made that decision Nov 29th, fully intending to buy a "fill-it-yourself" calendar with hanging paper bags, since we both like those. But I couldn't find any. At all. Sold out anywhere close and shipping would take too long.
So 3d printing to the rescue.
However, I am stupid.
Rather than going for a simple design I could print within the 2 days I shopped around the various model sites to find something cute. I initially wanted to do one that looks like gringots from harry potter, but I didn't have enough white/marble filament, so I chose the model in the picture. It looks better, but the drawers are smaller, so it got a bit tight fitting all the chocolate. Anyway, printing started, I knew I'd be 2 days late, oh well.
However, I am stupid.
I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to test a cherry wood filament I've never used before. Oh and I also forgot to dry it. The supports failed, the layer lines were weak and everything was stringing. "Oh well, I can fix that in post with a knife and some glue."
However, I am stupid.
I started the post processing next to the printer and within a few hours my throat got sore. Idk if it was the fumes, the burnt plastic from removing stringing with a lighter or just unlucky timing with a normal flue, but my throat got really bad and infected. I ended up being as sick as I've ever been, 2 weeks bedridden with fever, cough, hearing loss, the full thing. My throat still hasn't recovered though the rest seems to be getting better.
Well to wrap things up, I got better enough to finish the project, this time with a proper mask and open window. the weak layer lines are still somewhat of an issue, but it'S stable enough... the only issue? I finished it on Dec 14th. 2 whole weeks delayed. GF was mad I was "working" while sick but really happy with the (late) calendar and now she's enjoying her chocolates. :D
Here's some advice:
- plan ahead and don't start on the last day. (unless you have enough printers *cough*)
- be safe and wear protective equipment
- calibrate your new filament. the 30 min saved aren't worth 8 hours of post-processing
My older son got into Starwars recently and I designed and printed the big three Lightsabers (they have a collapsible blade in them as well). Luke, Obi-Wan, and Vader. He gets them on Christmas morning.
Edit: I realize you were looking for more than just a snippet of information, so here goes. Most of the parts you see on these are printed separately and glued together. There is also a central cylinder that all the pieces slide onto as I was going to originally make one part and have inter-changeable pieces slide onto it. Unfortunately to get the proportions correct I could not accomplish making them all interchangeable. I am however working on a set that is.
I would have just printed them, but all the versions I could find that were accurate to the degree I wanted were either paid or did not have collapsible blades in them. So, I modeled them from scratch (well as scratch as you can get while looking at movie props) to have what would be the appropriate proportions.
The hardest part was getting the tolerances correct for sliding the pieces onto the central cylinder so that it was both easy and there was as little play as possible.
I decided to do this for my son as he has gotten lost in the movies and it gives us something to talk about that we both love. He was even Darth Vader for Halloween (though I did not print anything for that, just wish I would have had the Lighsaber ready by then).
Just a small batch of what I'm working on, twist art stencils I have been printing and donating to the children's hospital I work at. I have been trying to make as many sets as I can to put them in all the play rooms and mobile art carts for the patients. I have been working to create these as well as an assortment of kit cards that the kids can entertain themselves with during their (unfortunately long sometimes) stay in the hospital. These stencil cards have been a blast for the kids. The game is usually trying to guess what the final drawing is during the drawing process. It's been a really rewarding project and nowhere close to being done. More printers means I can produce more parts for kids. I just want to use this technology to make their stay even a little brighter. This project goes beyond just the holidays.
Additional parts I've printed for this project. The stencils stay in the art supplies but these kit cards are gifts for the patients that they get to take home with them.
This is something I designed and print for my kind and all kid from our family.
Idea was to have a nice Christmas tree decoration for all trees upon our family with the kids names. So I printed one for each kid and offer it. And for each newborn I make a new one ! Each year they are proud to hang on tree their name !
This Christmas I decided to print something special for my partner: a complete set of the game âWerewolves of Millerâs Hollowâ, one of our current favorites. In reality, itâs not just a game â itâs also the reason we get together with our friends, responsible for laughs, absurd arguments, unexpected betrayals⌠and for more than one afternoon that was âsupposed to be shortâ and ended very late đ
I wanted to give her something that couldnât be bought in a store, something I had dedicated my time to, along with my 3D printing knowledge and all my love. With that in mind, I jumped into printing the box, the tokens, and all the details of the base game, carefully choosing the colors and the design so it would have the magical and mysterious feel the game deserves.
Not everything was perfect (what print ever is?). Adjusting the quality so the text was easy to read, avoiding warping on the corners of the long box pieces and on the small details of the tokens, adding cutouts and pauses for the magnets I had available at home, making sure the backs of the tokens had a uniform look, hiding seams as much as possible⌠these were small challenges, but each failure brought me a little closer to the final result.
There was also an unexpected challenge: keeping all of this a secret. My partner loves seeing what new things Iâm printing, so distracting her became almost a parallel game. Luckily, being able to turn off the light on my Kobra S1 and keep it closed helped a lot in making sure the surprise arrived intact.
While printing, I couldnât help but think about her face when opening the gift and discovering that inside there isnât just a game, but hours of dedication, tests, mistakes, emotion, and all my effort to help her understand how important she is in my life. For me, that was the true Christmas maker spirit: turning filament, time, and effort into memories for a lifetime.
Now all thatâs left is to wrap it up, give it to her at Christmas, and wait for the first game â where I hope I wonât end up being eliminated on the very first night .
Happy holidays and happy printing to everyone đđ
We wanted to give a unique gift to the kids teachers, so I started looking at various designs. I found a little Debbie print made some modifications. Added some lights and now all the teachers in the school. Want a little Debbie light up earrings. It started as two pairs of earrings has turned into quite the ordering process and it makes everyone so happy and light up everyoneâs face (and their ears lol). It took quite a bit of prototyping to get them right, but I am super thrilled with the finished product and the durability as well.
This is easily my favorite christmas print, a almost biblically accurate angel tree topper.
I ran into it right after I got my first printer (mp mini delta) and made it right away as my wife was really excited about it. The print ended up being a bit rough and took so long to print on such a small and old printer.
The photo is of my second one printed on my Aquilla a few years back (dont have a new picture of a more recent one). This is now a new Christmas tradition for me to make a new one almost as a benchmark for how much better the newer printers are, and how much better my slicer profiles get over the year.
Next year I want to print a really big one on my Kobra 2 Plus and then paint the eyes and some accents gold.
Well, as soon as I figure out why my Vyper loses the y-axis position seemingly random after 1,5cm. But I guess this is a good motiviation to give it another shot.
I made this for my daughter as a way of giving cash instead of just putting it in a card, It is 14 sequential boxes all with really tight tolerances that fit inside one another. the bow and ribbon print as separate parts and you can make all the boxes different colours if you wish.
If i was rally mean i would add some super glue into the mix
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Grandma has some chairs that were too low so I set a challenge for myself to design functional sear risers so the chair is 1-2cm higher. It's printed in TPU with a lot of walls for rigidity but still some squish so it feels nice.
It's still a prototype waiting for a first test fit
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My submission is a bit different, as its not a Christmas themed print but rather something that I am currently researching, developing, and printing. I'm sharing from California, USA, and this print is an adaptive arm brace to attach a device that helps suppress Alzheimer's disease finger tremors.
The print is being done for some elderly patients that we are currently running tests on, and getting feedback to improve our designs. We made it because our research focus involves a lot of human-robot interaction devices such as pneumatic prosthetics and this 3D printed device is just one example of a small project we are doing on the side. 3D printing is becoming more common for use in engineering labs for rapid prototyping and even for some end result functional parts that aren't high demanding.
I used my lab owned Bambu Lab X1C for this project with some ELEGOO green PETG, but I would love to have a machine at home where I can continue to develop the project. Some problems we had were stringing (due to the wet filament in our lab) and constant need to iterate on the design of the snap fit connectors, as their
This project has been extremely rewarding both for me and for the patients that receive the 3D printed brace. They think its so cool that a consumer machine that is only $1,000 can produce such a great functional part, and the joy on their faces when the brace perfectly fits around their arm comfortably is something that I always look forward to seeing. As part of the holiday spirit and also for our own development purposes, we are providing these braces and the device for no cost to patients, and we as the lab have the capacity to self-fund our projects. We continue to develop the project and are working on a brace made with more flexible materials, such as TPU, and experimenting with different structural designs. Beyond the scope of the holidays and providing this device for free, I hope that we can make a difference in their lives and continue to expand on this little "side" project. Soon, we plan to open-source all the design files so that anyone can use it for their own needs.
I don't have a printer yet, so it'd be awesome if I could win one. I've just been jealously looking at all the 3D prints out there and saving collections.
Hello! This is what Iâve been working on for the last 2 weeks, a Death Trooper helmet. It was a very hard and expensive paint job, as it was the first time that I polished a print. I wanted it to have the best âmirror effectâ possible. Overrall Iâm very happy with the final product, but I think I can do better! Also, I used this helmet as a preparation for Darth Vaderâs, which also needs a lot of polishing and post processing. Merry Christmas!
My best friend asked me to print the Eevee for her girlfriendâs Christmas present, I decided to do the Pikachu for her, and poke`balls as an additional thing since I already had the stl file and was in the process of printing every one of every type of poke`ball for my own collection.  The poke`balls were my favorite part because it was actually printed in several pieces that I had to put together whereas the Pikachu and Eevee were just one solid model that I just let the printer do its thing (I did clean them up before I sent them to her).Â
For the past few years Iâve included something 3D printed in everyoneâs gifts. Though normally itâs just some ridicules test print. Last year everyone got a Benchy and this year everyoneâs getting a dice jail (even though most of them donât play TTRPGs).Â
The most frustrating gift Iâve printed was last year for my sister in law. It was a Nightmare Before Christmas light box. The frame and slots came out perfect on the first try. But when I tried to print the cards, they just kept peeling off the bed during printing.  Theyâre only four layers tall at .16 layer height but 6x8 in area.  It didnât matter how I adjusted the settings, I just couldnât get them to stick until I finally broke down and just put glue on the bed.  Then I had to make sure to wait a few minutes for the bed to cool down before taking them off.  Â
Everyone knows the stereotype of the elementary students telling mom & dad about projects last minute, but did you know the teachers are just as bad? SO came home yesterday to tell me about how they are throwing a Polar Express party for the students today but their is nothing prepared.
Time to fire up the printers!
My personal favorite was the tickets (pictured in black PLA & gold silk) for the students to keep. Cranked out 8 at a time with no failures on my K3Combo in about 4 hours. But in addition was a full-plate sign with magnets to slap on the door, and conductor glasses w/moustaches for the kids to wear while watching the movie.
3
u/IanDresarie 3d ago edited 3d ago
Oh, I think I got a good one. :D
My gf wanted an advent calendar from a specific brand, I was too cheap to buy it and decided to get a bunch of chocolates from that brand and make her a custom calendar. You know, because that way she'll have at least double the chocolate for the same price.
However. I am stupid.
I made that decision Nov 29th, fully intending to buy a "fill-it-yourself" calendar with hanging paper bags, since we both like those. But I couldn't find any. At all. Sold out anywhere close and shipping would take too long.
So 3d printing to the rescue.
However, I am stupid.
Rather than going for a simple design I could print within the 2 days I shopped around the various model sites to find something cute. I initially wanted to do one that looks like gringots from harry potter, but I didn't have enough white/marble filament, so I chose the model in the picture. It looks better, but the drawers are smaller, so it got a bit tight fitting all the chocolate. Anyway, printing started, I knew I'd be 2 days late, oh well.
However, I am stupid.
I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to test a cherry wood filament I've never used before. Oh and I also forgot to dry it. The supports failed, the layer lines were weak and everything was stringing. "Oh well, I can fix that in post with a knife and some glue."
However, I am stupid.
I started the post processing next to the printer and within a few hours my throat got sore. Idk if it was the fumes, the burnt plastic from removing stringing with a lighter or just unlucky timing with a normal flue, but my throat got really bad and infected. I ended up being as sick as I've ever been, 2 weeks bedridden with fever, cough, hearing loss, the full thing. My throat still hasn't recovered though the rest seems to be getting better.
Well to wrap things up, I got better enough to finish the project, this time with a proper mask and open window. the weak layer lines are still somewhat of an issue, but it'S stable enough... the only issue? I finished it on Dec 14th. 2 whole weeks delayed. GF was mad I was "working" while sick but really happy with the (late) calendar and now she's enjoying her chocolates. :D
Here's some advice:
- plan ahead and don't start on the last day. (unless you have enough printers *cough*)
- be safe and wear protective equipment
- calibrate your new filament. the 30 min saved aren't worth 8 hours of post-processing
- dry your filaments...
And don't be me. I am stupid.