Window Snowflake, Christmas ornament, Nativity

thingiverse

I'd be happy to share my print with 'I made one'. Thanks! You're free to print these for your own use, but if you want commercial use, please contact me. Paper snowflake making during the holidays has become a cherished tradition of mine for over ten years now. I had my first inspiration from the instructables on how to make incredible paper snowflakes. These inspired me to create personalized snowflakes with friends' and family members' names and interests that included those I created gifts for. I've found these websites particularly helpful: http://www.instructables.com/id/Paper-Snowflakes/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Making-Six-Sided-Paper-Snowflakes-LIKE-A-BOSS/ http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-6-Pointed-Paper-Snowflakes/ This passion has led me to develop a few designs that I re-create each year for the beauty and significance of the subject and the Christmas season. This is an original design that I created many years ago, and this year my son suggested that I 'convert it and print it out in 3D'. Still being new to 3D printing and Freecad, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it but having some experience with importing drawings (getting lucky the first time) I was finally able to 'remember' how I did it the first time. On my first attempt at designing and printing everything came out fine. Except that I put it together wrong and the first time I tried to hang it up - it fell and broke into four pieces. Not wanting to throw out the pieces, I made and 'repaired' ring and glued it onto the broken pieces - so now I have Christmas Tree Ornaments! I've since created this 'repaired' design into a separate file to print these ornaments by themselves. I also added the ring to the full snowflake to add extra strength to the print. So, having realized that I put it together wrong (stars pointing in - not out), I re-designed it to look more like the original paper snowflake design. This took a bit of manipulating in FreeCad to join all the pieces. I'm finally getting more comfortable with FreeCad and can do these types of things a lot faster now. Print Settings Printer: Geeetech i3 pro c Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution: .2 Infill: 5 to 15% Post-Printing Next step: Things I've learned Still being new to 3D printing I am still looking for the best settings for printing. Sometimes (Ok - most of the time) I have it set wrong but I'm learning to get the best infill, smoothest top and bottom, etc. If anyone has any suggestions that have worked for you - please let me know. Printing with a 5% infill has left the surface a bit rough. 15% worked a lot better - but slower print. I like the view of the infill when the sun is shining through the print. You could even stop the print after the infill starts printing if you want a 'different' surface look. How I Designed This Took a picture of my design for the paper window snowflake (folded for cutting picture) imported to Inkscape (free), scaled and converted (saved) to .svg. Imported to Freecad (free) then traced drawing to convert to 3D shape cleaning up lines as needed. Then manipulated in the parts workbench, Mirror - flip/rotate - move until it lined up like I wanted it. Custom Section I included a picture of the paper snowflake hanging on a glass door. The paper snowflakes are fun to do and usually leave people in awe as they have only ever done the simple shape cuttings since grade school. Maybe give it a try as you're waiting for your 3D prints to finish.