Dart Star

pinshape

This print lets you bring foam dart throwing stars and safely fulfill your childhood dreams of being a shuriken throwing ninja. I 3D-print the stars as a tower. Once printed, I clean them up a bit. The barbs and rough edges help them grip the foam darts perfectly, so they fit the standard size dart with either the blunt end or a suction cup. To put the dart on the star, you have to wiggle it down carefully, rubbing gently along its length. Once you've got the dart in place, it's almost impossible to remove without ripping the dart to pieces. This is deliberate, so the darts don't come off accidentally. I was able to buy bulk lots of darts pretty cheaply from the internet, so the cost per DartStar is pretty low ($2-3). I've tested them by having people throw them at my face. I find they hit softer than most dart guns, and are pretty safe. I've had kids play roughly with them for months before one broke and lost an arm. Even then, the break was clean, thanks to the protection of the other darts. I've also gotten a few to stick to windows by throwing them, but most of the time they bounce off. The suction ends just aren't strong on most darts. I print the stars in PLA with layer height of 0.12mm, Walls of 0.8mm, 25% infill at 1:1 scale (or the dart won't fit). I print them with a 30 line brim at 200 degrees on a 60 degree bed. A single star takes a bit over an hour and uses about 5g or 2m of filament to print. Printing a 20-star tower takes closer to 20 hours. You could increase the infill if you wanted the star to be stronger, but it would also be a bit heavier, so I wouldn't recommend it. Enjoy!