Glowing Orb Staff

It's a fully 3D printable magic staff topped with a glowing orb! (Okay, the LED lights you can't print. Those you will need to provide based on your own LED preferences.)

It's technically a polyhedron, so it looks faceted in the light. I wanted it to print without needing supports, and it turns out it's pretty hard to make a support-free, thin, light-up sphere that still looks nice when you light it up from the inside. As a polyhedron, I was able to give it specific geometry on top so it slices and builds up nicely, and your seams—which are at least twice as visible when lit up—get hidden along the edges where the faces meet.

If you use the vase mode mod rods, you can run an LED strand through the rod and make that light up too.

This is a modular design, and I wanted it to be somewhat flexible for light-up solutions. You will probably need something that uses coin cell batteries, or otherwise has a very small power source.

For your staff, you're also going to want to print some Mod Rods:

• The Modular Vase Mode Rod is designed to be printed in PETG and with a 0.8mm or larger nozzle. It takes less time to print, is surprisingly strong, and can be lit up with an LED string.
  • For the vase mode mod rod, you will want to print however many of the rod you think you will need, plus a big-to-big converter for the bottom of the staff.
• The Solid Mod Rod can be printed with your standard 0.4mm nozzle and PLA, and you can choose between a faceted design or just smooth, plain rods. Print however many of these you think you will need.
• I've also included orb base versions you can modify for connecting with PVC pipe or other stick of your choosing.

How to Print:

Please note that none of these parts print in vase mode, although several of them are compatible with the vase mode rods.

• PLA or PETG
• No supports should be necessary for any of these. Some may need adhesive or a brim.
• 3 Perimeters
• Aligned seams
• For time vs. quality (as well as having been print tested) I would recommend 0.2mm layer height at 0.4mm line width.
  • Some of these can definitely be printed with a larger nozzle, but I recommend against it for the orb in particular, because lighting it up will make flaws and lines twice as visible.
• All models are already oriented in the position they're meant to be printed.

Orb:

• The orb is the same for all versions. It screws onto the orb base.
• Aligned seams
• No supports should be necessary.
• I didn't have problems with bed adhesion, but you can use adhesive or an outer brim if you're concerned.
• The top slices fine for me in PrusaSlicer—I actually played with the geometry until it could slice it correctly and not do the weird printing-circles-in-midair thing—but if you're using something else I'd double check it's not doing anything wonky at the top.

Orb base:

• There are three versions of this: one version for the vase mode rod, and two versions for the solid rod. Make sure you're printing the one you want.
  • For the solid rod: The faceted version lines up with the faceted solid rod, and the plain version lines up with the plain solid rod. They won't look as nice if you try to combine faceted and plain.
• If you're printing this in a translucent color, pay attention to what your infill is going to look like when light shines through it.

Orb base insert:

• These are interchangeable between versions, and are meant to help with installing your choice of LED light. They screw into the inside of the orb base. There's a basic X, a mostly closed version with just enough space to slide through the standard coin cell battery pack attached to some LED strings, and an open set of threads you can add whatever you want to. I made these a separate piece so you can modify them, and use and switch between whatever LED light solutions you have on hand.
• The two I made have openings so that you can screw and unscrew them, plus so that you can optionally illuminate the orb base, as well as, if you're using the vase mode mod rod, run an LED string down inside the length of the rod.

Bottom finial (gem shape):

• There are three versions of this, one for the solid rod and two for the vase mode rod.
• One of the vase mode rod versions has a little ‘hook’ and some open space built in, so that if you run an LED string through your rod, you have something to secure it to at the bottom to keep it in place.
• If you're using the solid rod, you can choose to skip this part and print a solid end cap instead.
• The bottom finial for my different mod rod designs are meant to be mix-and-match-able. You could also use the spherical finial from the Spinning Star-Moon Staff.

Etc.

Notes on LED/light sizing:

• Using an orb base insert, you have a max base diameter of 4.9 cm.
• To fit into the orb, your LED setup will need to fit through a ring with a diameter of 5.8 cm.
• The orb itself has an inner diameter of about 8.9 cm.

Filaments seen in photos:

• Prusament Mystic Brown PLA (Which I would recommend on it being pretty and printing well, but not on temperature-based color differences, which haven't shown up at all in my own tests.)
• Prusament Clear PETG
• Printed Solid Jessie Red Ice PLA
• The white isn't particularly exciting, but it's also a Printed Solid Jessie PLA. Solid choice for white if you're buying in the U.S.

Original design, made to be compatible with Mod Rods.