Vase Mode Christmas Ornament Collection

I present a collection of 10 Christmas ornaments in different styles and sizes—five styles, two sizes each. The baubles for each ornament can be printed in vase mode. The cap for the end of the bauble can attach to an ornament hanging hook or be snapped around a Christmas light on a strand to make the ornament glow.

What's that, you don't have an ornament hanging hook? Have no fear, we've included a handy loop that you can optionally print as well!

And, yes, in lieu of a Christmas tree, my family hangs our lights and ornaments on our ficus.

⚠ These are not challenging prints, but they do require some configuration! Do not print them without reading the printing tips (at least the TL;DR) below. ⚠

TL;DR Printing Tips

• Print the baubles on vase mode with 0.6mm or (ideally) 0.8mm outer wall line width.

• Print the baubles with 5mm worth of bottom shell (25 bottom shell layers at 0.2mm layer height).

• Test the different tolerances for the cap and hook before committing to printing a batch.

• If none of the tolerances work, adjust your extrusion multiplier, scale them slightly, or edit the OpenSCAD files.

RTFM Printing Tips

bauble-[style]-[size].stl

These files are designed to be printed in spiral vase mode.

Print them with as thick of an extrusion width as you can. This will increase the part's chance of success as well its strength and durability. You can typically print an extrusion width 150% as wide as your nozzle. My favorite prints of these have a 0.2mm layer height and 0.8mm extrusion width (printed on a 0.6mm nozzle).

They need to be printed with a solid base. The base is 5mm tall so you should instruct your slicer to print n bottom shell layers, where n = 5mm / Layer height. For example, if printing with a layer height of 0.2mm, you will need to print 25 solid bottom layers.

The tops of the baubles narrow to a fine point. For some filaments/configurations this works well; for others it can get pretty messy. Depending on which you have, you may wish to trim off the very top of the ornament in your slicer using negative modifiers. (Or simply enjoy the messy aesthetic, as though your ornament were truly blown from hot glass, with all its imperfections.)

The short sizes are 60mm tall and the long ones are 140mm tall—excluding the base. If you want different sizes, I've provided the source OpenSCAD files. Details below.

Example settings:

cap-[tolerance].stl

The cap snaps onto the ornament base. I've provided three different tolerances to match your setup and configuration:

• default, which works on my printer,

• tight, which narrows the space between the fins and the edge that clamp onto the base, and

• loose, which widens it.

The cap has two holes on the top through which you can thread an ornament hook or the included hook files. It also has slots in the side through which you can pass through (before clipping it onto the bauble!) a Christmas light strand, if you would like the ornaments to be lit up instead of hung on branches.

I highly recommend printing a piece and testing its fit on a bauble before committing to printing a batch.

I bet these would print well in TPU! But, alas, I don't have the capacity to test that theory. If you do, let me know how it goes!

If none of these tolerances work for you, play with adjusting your extrusion multiplier or modify the OpenSCAD files directly.

hook-[tolerance].stl

The hook is an optional element of this print. Perhaps is is more accurately called a loop.

It snaps into the holes in the cap and provide a loop with which you can hang the ornament on a tree branch. Plus, if you can print one successfully on your first go, you can tell all your friends that your bed adhesion is second to none.

As with the cap above, I've provided it in three tolerances:

• default, which works on my printer,

• tight, which makes the anchors on the ends wider,

• loose, which makes them narrower.

As with the caps above, I recommend testing tolerances one at a time before committing to a batch. If none of them work, play with your extrusion multiplier, adjust the scale slightly, or modify the OpenSCAD files directly.

source.zip

This zip file contains all of the source OpenSCAD files if you would like to customize the designs yourself before exporting.

You will need the BOSL2 library to use them.

Also included is a file generate.py which, when run as a Python script, will generate the whole suite of STLs.