Reusable Christmas Tree - Adaptable - Storable

prusaprinters

<p>I like christmas trees. But <strong>I didn´t want to kill a tree every year</strong> just to look at it for a couple of days. So I designed a <strong>reusable christmas tree</strong>.</p><h4><strong>Easy to build:</strong></h4><p>You´ll only need a saw and some sandpaper (except of your 3D printer of course :D)</p><h4><strong>Adaptable:</strong></h4><p>You can choose the hight and the width of the tree as you like. You can rotate every branch to get your own design. You can use any uploaded flat ornament as decoration for the top with a simple slicer trick.</p><h4><strong>Reusable &amp; Storable:</strong></h4><p>Stick all parts together to build it - disassemble them for easy storage.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4><strong>Instructions:</strong></h4><ul><li>My tree has a hight of <strong>1,27m</strong>. This is what i will call a <strong>standard tree</strong> in these instructions.</li><li><strong>For every tree you need:</strong> one <strong>d15mm aluminium tube</strong> as the core, <strong>d10mm round timber</strong> as the branches, and <strong>some printed parts</strong>: 1 printed foot part, 1 printed tip part, 1 ornament (star) and several branch parts ( I used 21) depending on the hight you want.&nbsp;</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><ul><li>The <strong>core </strong>of the tree is made of an aluminium tube with an outer diameter of 15mm. You can find them at any hardware store. I chose a tube with a length of 1m as a standard, but you can choose a longer or shorter pipe and cut it to your liking. If you choose a custom length for your tube you need: 40mm for the foot part, 45mm for every branch part (the more you add, the higher the tree) and 15 mm for the tip part.</li><li>The <strong>branches </strong>are made of round timber with a diameter of 10mm. This ist common in hardware stores, too. Every branch layer has two branches (the standard tree), but I added the option for three branches per layer. My standard tree has the following branch lengths: top layer: 30mm, add 15mm for each layer top to bottom. My standard tree has 21 branch layers, so at the bottom a branch has a length of 33cm. If you want your tree thinner you can reduce the numbers, if it shall be wider you can add a bit to them. Cut all the branches to length. My tip: start with the longest ones and work yourself to the shorter ones. this way you will have less offcuts. Smooth the edges with sandpaper.</li><li>You also need some wood for the <strong>stand</strong>. You can either use the 10mm round timber - use it for the “foot branch rods” - where you will need 4x 25cm length. Or you can build your own stand design using the “foot DIY” where you can attach your design with a wood screw from the bottom. I used the DIY version and built my stand out of 10mmx40mm planks. If you use the branch rod design you neither need to drill holes nor need extra parts, you can just stick the parts together.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><ul><li><strong>3D printed parts:</strong> I printed my parts with 0,2mm layer height 30% Infill. I recommend to rise the printing temperature a bit to get better layer adhesion, especially if you use silk filament (as I did), because it has worse layer adhesion. The parts need no support exept the branch parts (marked), but there is a supportless version, too. All parts are designed in print direction.</li><li><strong>Foot</strong>: You have two options: DIY or branch rods. Above is described what else you need, and that the branch rods version is simpler to build. You need only 1 so choose wisely :D</li><li><strong>Branch parts</strong>: you have 4 versions to choose: 2 or 3 branches, each printable with or without support. I used &nbsp;branches with support. For the standard tree you will need this part 21 times. For a different hight you will need another number as you calculated above.</li><li><strong>Tip part</strong>: there is only one version and you need 1.</li><li><strong>Ornament</strong>: you can use the provided star, print it and stick it in the top of the tip part. You can also use any other <i>flat</i> ornament you can find, designed by others: Download the chosen ornament, open it and open my provided file “ornament adapter" in the slicer, put the adapter at the bottom of the ornament, so that both intersect and the adapter sticks out at the bottom of the ornament. If you slice and print now you get one combined part.&nbsp;</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><ul><li>Now you can <strong>assemble </strong>all parts by sticking them together, rotate the branches to your liking an decorate it. Don´t use glue, so you can disasemble it easily for storage.</li><li><strong>Merry Christmas :)</strong></li></ul>