Tuna Mobile

thingiverse

Tuna Chandelier, complete with illumination, required a total of -5 man hours to assemble. Printing all parts on my 250mm x 200mm Prusa bed took around 150 hours. I created this tuna mobile from an existing tuna file on here, printing 90 PLA copies of the fish in varying sizes at .20mm resolution and 10% infill, scaling them from 50% to 150%. To avoid printing supports and minimize print time, I sliced the fish in Slic3r along the horizontal axis, then printed each fish as two pieces that could be glued together. Next, I used a 1/16 drill bit to create holes through the fish vertically in two places. Cutting multiple pieces of fishing line to 3"-5" lengths allowed me to insert them into these holes and secure them with glue-covered spikes. One long string proved too difficult to pass through the hollow body's complex infill. The base arms and plugs were straightforward, printed with 20% infill and three perimeters for added rigidity. I used five arms, but designed the base to accommodate ten. The clear print was later covered by blue fabric, obscuring its cloudy appearance. A custom bearing holder was created using a spare bearing that measured OD 19mm, ID 6mm, Thickness 6mm, sealed. I applied metallic silver and clear rattle can paint to the fish, then airbrushed yellow highlights before adding Sharpie eyes for a realistic touch.