Cardinal - Stained Glass Suncatcher

A unique way to show off 3D printing and to add some decorations to your windows!

Print the outline in black or a dark metallic looking filament. Then print the "stained glass" with different translucent filament colors.

Material:

• PLA seems to hold up fine after a year of being in the window with no detectable color fade (and I live in a hot climate with lots of direct sunlight).

• PETG works well too.

Printing Tips:

• Infill: Different infill patterns and percentages can be used to create interesting patterns and effects. As shown in the picture I used 100% infill.

• Layer height -- I found that 0.3mm layer height produces a clearer result than using a 0.2mm layer height; experiment with this for different looks. I also used 3 perimeters and 3 top and bottom layers.

• Scale the z-height (not x or y)generate different material thicknesses of the stained glass panels to generate different shades of colors (try anywhere between 50% and 150%).

Assembly and Finishing:

• No glue needed as the parts normally snap into place. If needed tap on the parts with the back of a screwdriver to seat them. Once in a while you may need to use the end of a slotted screw driver and a small tap to seat all the corners and edges properly.

• Use thin fishing line and a suction cup to finish the project!

• Extra tip: Sometimes the back (top when printing)) of the "stained glass" panels can get a little stringy looking - a couple of quick passes with a heat gun after everything is assembled works well to clean this up.

Reference:

Based on the stained glass works of RockcrestGlass/Susan Humphrey: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RockcrestGlass