The file 'Elegant Double-Spiral Christmas Ornament 3D Printer Model' is (stl) file type, size is 4.7MB.
I'm sharing my files so that you can make them for yourselves or give them away as gifts. I hope you enjoy them. I do not authorize sale of my work by anyone. Please don't ask me.
This is a fun ornament that catches the light beautifully and looks different from every angle. It's part of my Christmas Collection.
I knew from the outset that printing this would be very difficult, so I accepted it as a challenge and as you can see, it worked!
I was able to get a reasonably rough print by engineering supports. They are designed not to handle overhang, but to keep the print adhered to the plate and eliminate any wobble in the x-y plane. They release easily with no marks on the print and no cleanup. I've provided the model with and without these supports, but without something that acts like them, the I believe print is impossible using an FDM printer. It may be easier to print using resin or another technology.
I improved the print quality by using Cura's "Custom Supports Cylinder" plug-in to add 10mm cylinder supports under the center of each wide, unsupported section at the top (shown in slides). These reduce warping on the Z axis.
There's a tiny hole at the top of the ornament for you to insert a thread of stren to hang the ornament by.
The supports add a lot to the print time. My print time was roughly 11 hours.
Teardrop_2021.stl | 5.5MB | |
Teardrop_2021_with_Supports.stl | 5.6MB |