Customisable Ice Cube Mold 3D Printer Model

Author: @
License: CC BY
File formats: scad,stl
Download type: zip
Size:1.1MB

The file 'Customisable Ice Cube Mold 3D Printer Model' is (scad,stl) file type, size is 1.1MB.

Summary

Easily create personalised ice cubes

  • No CAD skills required
  • Simple print. No supports.
  • Also useful as molds for kinetic sand or play-doh

Included examples (.stl):

  • ICE
  • GIN
  • RUM

IMPORTANT: Ice molds require flexible filament

  • The safety of 3d printed materials for food preparation is highly debated
  • I personally use filament that is certified as food-safe (Eolas Prints TPU, Spain)
  • I also use a non-toxic hardened steel nozzle, rather than a standard brass nozzle

If you've never printed with flexible filaments before:

  • it's definitely worth a try!
  • start with a semi-flexible filament (e.g. 95A TPU)
  • start with this design (Seriously. It's dead easy.)

To release the ice, run hot water on the back of the mold, and then extract with a blunt knife.
The more flexible the filament, the easier the extraction.

How to customise:

  • Install the free software OpenSCAD
  • Do a 30 min online tutorial to learn the basics (use the editor, preview, render, and save as .stl)
  • Download the sledge typeface
  • Install the typeface so it's accessible to OpenSCAD (see forum)
  • Move gin_ice_mold_demo.scad and icemold.scad to the same directory and open gin_ice_mold_demo.scad in OpenSCAD.
  • Modify the text. Modify mold_length_x to change the length of the ice cube.
  • preview (F5), render (F6), and save as .stl

Note: if you don't want any wall text, just change the variables to empty strings (e.g. wall_text_lhs_top = "";).

Further info:

Many thanks to the support of my work colleagues at Munich-based TNG Technology Consulting GmbH. The initial concept came from a hobby project during a TNG Techday (similar to Google's "20% time").

The design is also on GitHub. The OpenSCAD code is released under a permissive licence that allows commercial use.

gin_ice_mold_demo.scad 1.3KB
gin_mold_demo.stl 3.8MB
icemold.scad 7.8KB
ice_mold_demo.stl 3.9MB
rum_mold_demo.stl 4.8MB