Modular Star Tree Topper

UPDATE: The bolt assembly does work. I got the pieces back out and finally printed the threaded hub and bolt for a glue-less assembly. One thing to note, the orientation of the hub is important. There is one receiving notch that is slightly closer to the center. This is the bottom notch meant to hold the base of the tree topper. If it isn't in the right spot the holes won't line up. The bolt itself could use some tweaking for aesthetics. Maybe trim down the height of the bolt head or make it blend in with the medallion. Would love to see what others come up with.

My wife looked at the bare top of our tree and said, "Why don't you PRINT us a star?" I searched her words for a hint of sarcasm, but she is a kind person and was being sincere. Still, I thought it was a chance to prove my little hobby that consumes some money and lots of time was actually useful for something other than printing nerd props and junky toys.

This model is still being printed, so the jury is still out. I just thought I'd go ahead and upload the models while it bakes. All together I estimate 10 hours of printing on my Flashforge Creator. I'm only about 4 hours into it. I'll let you know how it turns out.

UPDATE: The cover pic is the finished product. Only I already updated the "medallion" to have a hole in the center so that it will be compatible with my version 2 base which will have threading to receive a bolt to hold everything together with no glue. I'll add the revised files when I get a chance.

Print Settings

Printer:

FlashForge Creator

Rafts:

No

Supports:

No

Resolution:

.3 mm

Infill:

10%?

Notes:

This is still printing, so I'll update if I have any tips. The cone part seemed to go much slower than necessary. Perhaps you could experiment with the number of shells vs. infill and cut your time down drastically. The cone turned out a little thicker than I needed I think. Maybe you want to go into the design file and thin it some? Enjoy.

UPDATE: I printed this near the upper limits of speed for my printer and it did pretty good. (some minor layer separation in places) Most the parts are shaped so that a little warping or layer separation shouldn't ruin anything. You may want to do the threaded parts at .2mm and slow it down a little.

Post-Printing

Print 1 cone, 1 hub (or hubBottomWithHole for V2), 1 medallion (or medallionWhole for V2), also for V2 print a starbolt. Print four little legs and three big legs. Friction fit the legs into the base then put the medallion on. Maybe it won't need glue, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Version two includes a hole in the middle to hold a bolt that can hold the sandwich together.

Category: Decor