Customized Playing Cards

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Customized Playing Cards

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Print Profile(4)

All
P1S
P1P
X1
X1 Carbon
X1E
A1

Classic deck
Classic deck
Designer
29 h
8 plates
5.0(1)

Prime Tower Designs deck (illusionist-themed)
Prime Tower Designs deck (illusionist-themed)
Designer
35.3 h
8 plates

Unofficial Bambu Lab deck
Unofficial Bambu Lab deck
Designer
27.8 h
8 plates
5.0(3)

Individual card entities
Individual card entities
28.5 h
9 plates
5.0(1)

Open in Bambu Studio
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Released

Description

Update: Wow! I didn't expect this to blow up prior to me posting the deck generator. MakerWorld is planning enhancements for OpenSCAD integration in the next couple months, so it shouldn't be long until I can make it available. I'll then add a new model listing for it so that my followers get notified.

 

BTW, if all goes according to plan, I'll soon also be uploading what I think is my best illusion yet. Hint: The deck generator was always just a stepping stone…

Where’s the Customize button?

Just to clarify: these decks are customized—not customizable. I’m posting three decks created as proof of concepts from my custom deck generator built with OpenSCAD.

 

I plan to post the generator once I can either integrate it into MakerWorld or provide a simple download option – hopefully soon. Right now, MakerWorld’s OpenSCAD scripts can’t reference external models (like card artwork), though improvements may come in their upcoming release.

 

For now, I hope you enjoy these 3 example decks:

  1. Classic deck
  2. Prime Tower Designs deck (illusionist theme)
  3. Unofficial Bambu Lab deck
    • Custom suits: Bambu logo, MakerWorld logo, spools, build plates
    • Note: The build plate graphic looks pretty rough when printed with a 0.4mm nozzle

Commercial print sales are NOT allowed.

3D Printed Playing Cards?!?

If you just need a pack of playing cards, buying one will be much easier. But if you’re looking for something unique...

 

Sure, you could try to print it on a traditional consumer inkjet. Good luck finding a suitable card stock which is glossy, thick, and won’t deform when going through the printer. And forget about adding shiny, sparkly, or glow accents!

 

I could try to sell you more on the idea, such as the fact that these cards are waterproof, but who am I kidding? If you try to play with them on the beach, they’re probably going to warp in the sun. Compromises are an important part of growing up.

 

I should add that these cards are a bit thicker than regular cards, but they feel pretty close to the real thing in how they bend and shuffle.

 

At the end of the day, face it, you’re looking for new stuff to print, and your friends will think your cards are cool. Just go with it.

Suitable (no pun intended) Filaments

My goal was to create a 3D printed deck that resembles a traditional deck. One of the hardest parts of achieving that was to have the card faces be white without too much light bleeding through. Cards aren’t much fun if everyone can see your hand.

 

I ran a bunch of experiments to balance the card translucency against other factors like how well the cards bend and how they look overall. While I certainly wouldn’t play high stakes poker with these cards, as there is light bleed if held up to a bright light, for casual purposes they work fine AS LONG AS YOU CHOOSE SUITABLE FILAMENTS!

 

Back of the Card: Use dark, opaque filaments (e.g., dark Bambu PLA Metallic). Avoid overly translucent options like Bambu’s Galaxy line.

 

Face of the Card: Can be light or dark; however, if opting for a light color, ensure your filament isn’t too translucent. I found that Bambu’s matte white works much better than PLA Basic white.

 

Note on Silk: For card faces, avoid PLA silk because it’s tough to remove from the build plate, prone to stringing, and leaves residues that affect subsequent prints.

Other Printing Tips

  1. Orientation: Print cards face down on a smooth build plate. This ensures they’re able to slide easily when being dealt. However, I didn’t get good results with a holographic plate.
  2. First Layer Temperature: Increase to 65°C to boost adhesion of fine details.
  3. Nozzle Size: All decks were printed with a 0.4mm nozzle. I’m sure they’d look better with a 0.2mm nozzle, but that’s a big time commitment.
  4. Reducing Imperfections: If issues like stringing or color blobs occur on the face of the card, try using custom filament ordering in the plate settings. You want the background of the card face to print first so that any stringing from colorful details gets hidden behind the background color.
  5. For additional opacity: For the 3rd (light blocking) layer, use the most opaque (low TD) filament you have, such as a matte black. To do this, use that filament as your card background color and set a pause on the 4th layer. When that pause is hit, swap that filament for the one you want as your background color. I've updated my deck customization script so that when I post it, the 3rd layer will have its own dedicated filament assigned to it.
  6. Card Removal:
    1. Let the plate cool a few minutes before removal.
    2. Flex the plate gently to lift the card edges.
    3. Use a scraper carefully just at the edges. Digging too far will likely damage the card due to the bend angle.
    4. Finally, use another card to help lift it—wriggle gently to release without applying too much force.

Thank You!

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Comment & Rating (28)

Please fill in your opinion
(0/5000)

Almost done printing the Bambu deck and they look amazing!
The designer has replied
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🙏
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Print Profile
Unofficial Bambu Lab deck
I was looking for a fun good design for a deck of cards and found this. It printed great and I really enjoy the cards. One thing that would be nice is if you could be able to print only one card at a time from the plate. I had a few failures due to plate adhesion and would have to restart the whole plate instead of being able to skip just the one card that failed. Still 5 stars since this is IMO the best design for cards that I have found.
The designer has replied
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Thank you for the compliment! I agree that it would be better if each card was it's own object. The way OpenSCAD exports is as a single object with many parts, and splitting it all apart would have been an exercise in tedium. That said, if you want to reprint just a single card you can copy the plate and then delete all of the parts that correspond to the cards you don't want to reprint. Not super convenient, but pretty easy if you're in a pinch.
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Love the cards. I designed a card holder tat fit this deck of cards that I would like to post and tag your design with your permission.
The designer has replied
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Absolutely, please post it. It looks great! Just make sure to indicate it's not an official Bambu model since it uses their logo.
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Unofficial Bambu Lab deck
Great, I tried one card, which is a bit transparent. I will try other colors for foreground, so that the black doesnt show from behind the white
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Thank you for sharing your great work... it looks amazing, and I bet you took you a lot of time to achive such aesthetics with functionallity. I slice the Classic Deck, and it seems to require two AMS. As this info isnt shown in the model project, can you please confirm. I am asking regarding printing without manual edit the gcode to pause within a layer.
The designer has replied
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Correct. The classic deck has 4 colors for the face artwork + 1 color for the face + 2 colors for the back - so 7 colors in total. You could combine colors if you only have 1 AMS, but I don't think there's another option without getting into super messy details. My other decks require fewer colors, so you could probably more easily trim them down to 4 colors.
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Boosted
Replying to @prime_tower :
Many thanks for the prompt reply... I just wanted to confirm. Currently I do have two AMS but not the hub one printer is not mine. You are correct, AMS filament changes within a layer isnt optimum. Again congrats on the work; when I receive my next boost, one is certainly yours.
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Replying to @jayzay :
Just an FYI. I use my 2 AMSes with this inexpensive part rather than the hub. I have printed a ton this way without any issues. Still need to use a filament buffer, but each AMS came with one of those, so I have more than I need. https://us.store.bambulab.com/collections/accessories/products/bambu-4-in-1-ptfe-adapter
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do you need multicolor printer to print?
The designer has replied
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Are you asking if you can do manual color swaps instead? I don't think so in this case because each of the surface layers requires multiple colors, and manual swaps I think can only be done at the beginning of a layer. Maybe there's some hacky way to do it but that's beyond me.
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no worries! thanks
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Boosted
Found this on Reddit, thought it was sick. I'm gonna print them this weekend
The designer has replied
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Nice. Which one?
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Boosted
Excellent work I can't wait to print my own deck and show it off to my friends haha Greetings
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You can see through these...
The designer has replied
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Depends what filaments you use as called out in the details.
1
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Interesting! Looking forward to your progress on these, I'll definitely try printing a deck soon.
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