Iris Easter Egg by MottN

MottN

Toys & Games>Other Toys & Games

IP Report

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Print Profile(8)

All

X1 Carbon

P1S

P1P

X1E

A1 mini

H2D

PLA, 0.16 High quality

Designer

4.3 h

1 plate

4.8(341)

0.2mm layer

Designer

3.2 h

1 plate

4.9(47)

0.2mm, 4 color striped

Designer

3.7 h

1 plate

5.0(10)

Clip only PLA or PETG

Designer

33 min

2 plates

5.0(9)

Click to see more

Open in Bambu Studio

Boost

2039

3806

931

695

6.9 k

3.7 k

Released

Description

This is a fun print that looks like a normal Easter egg, but the bottom has a spherical iris opening. Spherical irises are pretty cool because they seem to disappear into themselves when open! Way more fun than a normal Easter egg, and you can still hide stuff inside

This is a good one for the rainbow/gradient filaments you've been hording, or make a colorful striped egg while using up filament remnants.

Rough dimensions of the egg are 70mm x 100 mm, and the inside is around 48mm at its widest diameter and around 95mm tall (but not constant diameter in that section.

2025_04_03: If you're interested in a smaller egg, I've rebuilt this into a smaller version with some tweaks and changes to allow the mechanism to work at a smaller scale. Check it out here! Both are great, so I recommend you make a few of each :)

Make sure and follow the instructions, The iris part has a built in brim that needs to be separated before it will work. These are easy to separate and without them the iris blades don't reliably sick to the buildplate, even on core-xy printers (Credit goes to emmett's spherical iris box on thingiverse for this idea - this model is not a remix of it, but I did take inspiration from his design which I believe is the original)

A few printing tips:

Use my print profile for settings and orientation.
- If you have time, the 0.16mm profiles will look nicer and move smoother than the 0.2mm.
Make sure your build plate is nice and clean!
Silk and matte filaments aren't as strong and may struggle, I've printed this with a few of each and have had mixed results. If you print with either of these you may have to print the center clip that holds the two parts together from a different material.
- I've uploaded a profile with just the clip in PLA or PETG for quick printing if you need!

Assembly:

Break tabs on iris (this is quick and easy, I promise!)
1. Don't use a knife for this! The easiest way is to shove a flexible scraper between the parts to break the connections.
  Break Tabs Shown
Click retainer ring into the iris side by inserting the tabs in the correct side.
Align the tabs on the bottom part and press together. It works to just press them directly together, but the following is a little easier:
1. Locate the two tabs that are not at adjacent to the open end of the ring
2. Angle these two tabs into slots on the non-iris end of the egg.
3. Rotate the two ends flat together to click the remaining two tabs into place
4. With the iris open, check that all of the inner tabs are in place.

Comment & Rating (931)

@smigi13

Print Profile

PLA, 0.16 High quality

amazing job ! :)

@MottN.

nice, probably the closest to an Easter egg I’ve seen someone post yet!

@obnaes

That looks awesome!

@user_1025744412

Boosted

Great use of color! Did you paint the model by layers or just insert filament swaps? It would be awesome if you would publish this as a revision, your color choices and spacing are superb.

@jan45

Boosted

this is great. I mean: it’s marvelous. see here my first attempt, black mate PLA. the iris was a bit stuck at first, but I probably just didn’t fully undo the connections. once loose it worked smooth and flawlessly. the connection piece is the weakness though: already after a few minutes of handing it had significant play. my next attempt will be PETG, let’s see if that’s better. even the rings on the tip of the top are much better than what I usually have in such places. but all in all this is just jaw-droppingly beautiful and intricate. I promise: my next boost token goes to you, sir. everyone: PRINT THIS!!! seriously!!

The designer has replied

@MottN.

thanks, glad you like it!! I’ve printed quite a few of these and sometimes they are pretty smooth right off the plate and sometimes they are a bit sticky and loosen up. That probably has to do with how smooth the inside tracks where the iris rotates and slides against is printed. yeah the connector piece is def the weak link, but I couldn’t easily make it much bigger without making the inside smaller. I’ve only had some of the tabs fail on assembly, but once together if the part has got that far seems to work ok. it’s only failed for me with matte pla or silk which both are pretty weak.

@jan45

Boosted

Replying to @MottN. :

printed some more. the transparente is PETG, the golden is PLA. notice the line in the front? that’s where the head finished the outer-most line and went to print elsewhere. is there a way to get this done more continuously?

@blchandl2

Replying to @jan45 :

You might try using scarf seams to get rid of the line.

@adam205348

This is such a great design. I have printed several so far and plan to print many more for nieces and nephews. I do have a question though. On the Pastel one that is Creality Hyper PLA Rainbow it is the smoothest operating one, but if I turn it upside down to watch the iris open or close it locks up. It will take some force to get it to open if I am looking at the iris, but if I have the opening facing down it is smooth as silk. The other eggs are Amolen Slik PLA, it took quite a bit to get them to be some what smooth when facing down and they still are not as smooth as the other one, but when facing up I almost feel like I am going to break them before they come unlocked or whatever. Is there an internal lock to keep the iris locked closed or something I am missing? I used Regular Hyper PLA to print the internal connector clip in black. But over all a great design and print.

The designer has replied

@MottN.

There is an internal track with a 'hook' at the end that might be what you are feeling. It shouldn't be as hard to open as you are describing - it's intended to just provide a little resistance to keep shut. If I'm understanding correctly though, I would think it would behave opposite exactly opposite to what you describe. I have been working on a smaller version of this design. One of the changes is that I moved this 'hook' out of the track and into the base which I think works better. See pic

@adam205348

Replying to @MottN. :

I just recorded a video to show you what I am referring to, it is uploading to youtube right now and I will respond with a link in a minute. But yeah that new design looks nice. If you have a full size version of that design I will GLADLY print it today or as soon as you have it to give it a test. Thank you very much for putting your time into this.

(Edited)

@adam205348

Replying to @MottN. :

https://youtu.be/MiH92GgqbKQ Here is the video.

@PLURNEFARIOUS

This was my first attempt and I definitely did not read the description and just sent it with some Silk PLA and it functions but isn't the prettiest haha (I will be printing a few more for my niece and nephew for Easter) I'm sure the kids will love these and so do I so thank you :D

(Edited)

The designer has replied

@MottN.

Nothing wrong with silk! The ones in my picture are silk...just if you do that you might need to print the retaining ring clip out of a normal pla or petg. Looks good though :)

@xinexer

Replying to @MottN. :

can you increase the infill? so for instance, when I print something big that will likely peel off the plate, I got to 30-35% infill which stops the problem. so maybe more solid means less likely to break?

@user_2657949114

Which filament is this? Looks great for Easter eggs

@a1easye

Print Profile

Adaptive layers for smoother top end (10% infill --filament)

Overall it's a cool design. I knocked it down 1 star because of the gap between the two halves when assembled.

@MottN.

The clip is probably cracked or broken, or if its not broken then its not fully seated. Print it again in a normal (not silk) PLA or PETG. You can use a small screw driver to leverage the clip out.

@Jo90

Boosted

did you print the central bracket in basic pla? Silk is not top for this kind of parts

@a1easye

Replying to @Jo90 :

It was printed with Inland filament. Regular pla, just rainbow color.

@GPLabs

Boosted

Print Profile

PLA, 0.16 High quality

This is *so* cool. Thank you for designing this! I’ll be printing many.

@MottN.

You're welcome! I'm glad you like it!!

@user_4096629990

Boosted

Print Profile

PLA, 0.16 High quality

Profile is perfect setting was perfect. I printed three at once.

@MottN.

Thank you!

@CJW052900

you cant watch the video

@user_4096629990

Boosted

Replying to @CJW052900 :

see it on TikTok blindog143D

@r4mand

Boosted

Print Profile

PLA, 0.16 High quality

Printed at 60% scale with a 0.2mm nozzle on an A1 mini. Perfectly functional with a robust mechanism.

Show original

@MottN.

oh awesome, that's a good idea!

@till.kristoffer

Boosted

Print Profile

PLA, 0.16 High quality

Just fabulous! experiment a bit with adding stripes to see how the iris would look and it turns out it looks great! I will try to print a few scaled down since i would like to use them in an egg hunt but i feel that 80-90g is a bit pricy when i need a lot of them, fingers crossed that the mechanism still works with tighter margins, but nothing to complain about the full size version :D

@MottN.

Thanks, Yes the stripes look great and don't take much time or waste! I will maybe try and optimize the material a bit - I know there is a fair bit of extra in the non-iris side that could be removed. And also I have been meaning to make a scaled down version, so keep an eye out for that.

@till.kristoffer

Boosted

Replying to @MottN. :

Update: tried two smaller versions without changing any other settings, 70% and 80% size. I did use silk PLA so maybe it was a bit brittle but the 70% seems too small to work, the locks snaps way too easy and it was hard to rotate the iris, guess the margins becomes too small. The 80 percent version did work, it still snapped two of the locks but i just put a tiny bit of glue to keep it together and the iris still works, its just under 48g for a single colour print and it fits a few pieces of candy still so i think its a sweet-spot for me, i will test with a normal PLA and see if the locks works better but this works for my use case. Thank you for this awesome print!

@MottN.

Replying to @till.kristoffer :

Good to hear! I also saw in another comment that someone printed one at 60% with a 0.2mm nozzle, and that worked well. I am working on modifying the geometry and gaps for a version about 70-80% size, so maybe that will hold up a bit better. Initially seems much better than scaling down but mechanism isn't consistently smooth yet. Sometimes is good and other times is 'crunchy' motion.

@lawrenc3D

not sure what we are doing wrong we tried this twice build plate clean

The designer has replied

@MottN.

Hard to tell what is going on from the pictures. If its breaking off and you have a clean build plate, it might be over-extrusion where the nozzle is catching on extra material extruded. You can run a flow rate calibration (not flow dynamics) to try and help with that.

@user_4171732327

for the mechanical part ,use petg

@user_16305764

i have the exactly same situation. built twice, only got rings. looks like the filament got stuck while printing a certain layer? did you find a solution?

License

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