Full size bedside table 100% vase mode

3D printed furniture is always challenging because to achieve some stability you usually have to throw a lot of material onto your machine to get a decent result. 

This proof of concept tries to prevent exactly that. My idea was to create a full-size bedside table (36cm x 36cm x 55cm)/(14 inches x 14 inches x 21.5 inches) with as little material as possible. 

Furthermore, the table should be easy to print on a regular Ender 3 sized bed (220 x 220 mm). The result is a kind of modular table which is printed 100% in vase mode and capable of holding about 5kg.

Print setup:

All parts were printed on an Ender 3 V2 with a .4mm nozzle and SUNLU PETG. I decided to use PETG because it's more flexible than PLA, but the parts can be printed in PLA as well. 

Important to know! 

The model cannot be resized or printed with a different nozzle size! 

This is caused by the way the model was designed. It requires a .4mm nozzle and also the scale of 100%. Otherwise, the internal support structure which is built into the model won't print properly and will cause the print to fail. 

Furthermore, I recommend gluing the tabletop parts together with super glue. Technically it's not necessary because the parts will interlock, but the center of the table becomes a lot more stable if you glue the four parts together.

To build the full table you have to print the following parts:

• 1x tabletop start 
• 1x tabletop end 
• 2x tabletop middle 
• 12x leg 
• 4x feet

The whole table weights about 1.3kg so 2 spools should be plenty. I also recommend testing your printer settings using one of the feet. If this one prints properly, you can go for the other parts.

Slicer settings:

To print the model, you have to modify your slicer settings. The following settings are for PrusaSlicer; I couldn't get this to work in Cura.

• Layer height: .2mm
• Layer height limits: 
  • min: .2mm
  • max: .2mm
• Spiral vase: yes
• Infill: 0%
• Perimeters: 1
• Bottom layers: 
  • 3 (for the legs and feet)
  • 10 (for the tabletop parts)
• Top layers: 0
• Extrusion width: .4mm
  • Default
  • First layer
  • Perimeters
  • External perimeters
• Slice gap closing radius: 0mm
• Extrusion multiplier: 1.05

The extrusion multiplier is set for PETG. If you're using PLA, start with 1.0 and increase it if the model parts do not fuse together properly. Also, ensure that you have set the bottom layers correctly; 10 layers (2mm) are required to get a proper tabletop surface. The legs and feet can be printed with 3 bottom layers.

Last but not least, a big shout out to Nerys! His videos taught me how to use TinkerCAD, which made this project possible!

Happy printing 😎