Rotton Eggs!

myminifactory

This is my design submission for Easter Design Challenge! My three design goals were to print without supports, create an eggshell that locks together seamlessly and (of course) to be irresistibly cute. I devoted most of my time to figuring out a sturdy eggshell design that would print flawlessly without any supports and latch securely in place. I experimented with hinges and threads, but they introduced too many complications. My kids consistently cross-threaded or broke my prototypes every time, so I knew that wasn't the solution I was looking for. I eventually settled on nubs that wedge into place when the two halves are twisted together. The outside of the shell is perfectly egg-shaped, while the inside uses a more pointed "ogive" shape to create the cavity. This tapered shape allows you to adhere to the 45-degree rule and avoid overhangs or sagging deposits altogether. I created the characters using mostly spheres, various banana shapes and Christmas trees for all their facial hair. To add some damage areas I used spheres, asteroids and terrain shapes as "holes". Just for fun, I printed several in white so my kids can paint them with their favorite colors. I hope you enjoy printing these adorable Easter eggs! This object was designed using Tinkercad. You can find the design files here: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/3rQK6ilflAc Note: The first STL file, "rotton-eggs.stl" is the original file from TinkerCAD, while the rest are individual shape exports that have been run through Netfabb to fix minor non-manifold edges I found in S3D. Since I didn't encounter any issues printing the TinkerCAD files, I thought it was worth striving for perfection by fixing those minor imperfections!