Mini Star Christmas Tree Topper

thingiverse

Amongst my Christmas decorations, I have a very small tree I bought about 15 years back. It reaches the vertiginous height of 503mmm - that's about 21 inches in old money - and was chosen to match the proportions of my very small flat (apartment for those unfamiliar with the British terminology). When I first got it, I managed to find baubles matching its diminutive stature, but couldn't find a suitable topper, and was forced to improvise by purchasing a star ornament, removing the string loop, and drilling a blooming great hole in its nether regions so that I could poke the tree into it. Meh, it did the job OK, but it was never anything to write home about. Even aiming the topmost fairy light on the tree towards it did little to improve its makeshift look. So, every December since, I've unsuccessfully trawled the shops trying to find something to improve matters. But it seems most manufacturers of decorations seem to think that bigger is better. This year I decided it was about time I did something about it, and set about creating my own. Now, let's be honest; Thingiverse is awash with toppers of all sorts. Some have twinkling lights, some are multiple layers of printed colours, and some are just bizarre - I came across one that was a model of a hot dog in a bun! I wanted simple and traditional, and I wanted to stick with a star (in the UK trees are most often topped by a fairy). I also wanted it to be transparent and self-illuminated if possible. The latter turned out to be far easier to achieve than I first thought: I'd already been using the topmost light to light the previous star from without. All I had to do was to rearrange things so that it went inside the star, lighting it from within. The design itself isn't anything ground-breaking. It's essentially a star within a star, with a tube stuck in to it for the tip of the tree to pass into. By making the tube a little larger I could provide room for the fairy light wire and LED to go in as well. On first printing it looked great, but the plastic looked a little bland in daylight with the lights were off. Fortunately I just happened to have glitter left over from a lava lamp project I made a few years ago, and I figured it couldn't hurt to add a little sparkle using this. A quick squirt over with some clear lacquer, a light dusting with the glitter, and lo the magic of Christmas immediately appeared. I tried different ways to print the star, but nearly all of them left some pretty horrible support remnants. Trial and error showed me that it was best to print it pointy side down for minimum post-printing clean up. If you DO follow my example, I recommend using a brim, and print the star with 3 skin walls. But feel free to experiment, obviously! All in all, whilst it's not a design of any great magnitude, it's still a stellar contribution to my dinky little tree and has definitely put a twinkle in my eye - and, yes, the puns were all intentional! Happy 3D printing!