Safety Notice:

This 3D-printed toy may contain sharp edges and small parts that could potentially break off and be swallowed. Use of this toy is at your own risk. Close supervision of children while playing is strongly advised to avoid injury and choking hazards.

Motivation:

After we had given our children a set of 10mm fuse beads and they were thrilled with them, we were looking for more products to expand our supply of fuse beads and accessories. We quickly realized that both in-store and online, the selection of templates and boards for 10mm fuse beads was limited. This made me wonder if it would be possible to print the fuse beads and the corresponding boards ourselves. Here is the result...

The Beads and the Ironing:

Creating cylinders with a diameter of 10mm and a hole in them obviously posed no great challenge. But how would the printed beads react to ironing with different materials? For my initial tests, I printed beads from PLA as well as PETG. I avoided materials like ASA and ABS, as they would emit unpleasant odors when ironed. To my delight, the printed beads fused together excellently. PLA also fused with PETG; PLA with the purchased ones as well as PETG with the purchased ones. Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that the different materials did not adhere well to each other, and so the beads sometimes broke apart under light pressure. When materials of the same type were ironed, they withstood strong pressure. The best results I had were with PLA, probably because it melts at a lower temperature than, for example, PETG, and thus quickly fuses with the available temperature of the iron.

First test print. Light green: PETG; dark green: PLA; blue, yellow, white black: original fuse beads

It should be mentioned that the structure fused together in this way is stiffer and harder than beads fused in the "original" way.

This project provides a Bambu Studio project as a 3MF file, which includes various printing plates with different numbers of fuse beads. It takes about 1g of filament and approximately 5:40 minutes of pure printing time with a Bambu Lab X1 to print one bead. Thus, even small remnants of filament are suitable for producing several beads.

To produce 1000 beads with a Bambu Lab X1C, you will need approximately 605g of filament and about 20 hours of printing time over several prints.

The view through the board:

After the pearls, a board was needed. The goal was to print a transparent board, which would allow my children to recreate an underlying template with the fuse beads. Designing the plate was also no difficulty. The first test prints with transparent PETG Overture filament on my Bambu Lab X1 printer were anything but transparent. However, since transparent FDM printing is a topic in its own right, here are a few good sources that subsequently led me to success:

• CNC Kitchen YouTube Channel - Transparent FDM 3D Prints are Clearly Stronger!
• Bambu Lab Wiki - Printing tips for transparent PETG

Of course, it's also possible to print a non transparent plate but I want to achieve a transparent one to make it possible to create fuse beads picture from a template.

After I was able to successfully print a plate transparently, it was necessary to test whether the plate could also withstand the heat of ironing. The concern was that when ironing the beads, the heat would transfer to the plate and simply melt it into a huge plastic lump.

First time ironing PLA beads on a self printed plate

The first ironing on the self-printed plate went well. Certainly, if ironing for a longer period, the plate would sustain damage, but it withstands the heat until all the beads are well fused together.

This project offers two predefined thicknesses for the plates. A 3mm thickness mimics the original plate. However, the best compromise between stability and transparency is provided by the 2mm plate. The downloadable files include two Bambu Lab projects, one for 2mm and one for 3mm thickness, as well as various sizes of plates. This project offers two predefined thicknesses for the plates. A 3mm thickness mimics the original plate. However, the best compromise between stability and transparency is provided by the 2mm plate. The downloadable files include two Bambu Studio projects, one for 2mm and one for 3mm thickness, as well as various sizes of plates.

OnShape Document: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/8abf05518e3d4758f2c4a8f0/w/1c68cbe36206c33df7e22df7/e/cbe0e8374b03939fbc71f6c2?configuration=Beads_Plate_Height%3D16.0%3BBeads_Plate_Width%3D16.0%3BThickness%3D0.003%2Bmeter%3BTolerance%3D1.5E-4%2Bmeter&renderMode=0&uiState=65985d9a282a150e83315c89

Conclusion:

As my experiments and the pictures show, it is possible to create ironing bead art from the beads to the plate solely with a 3D printer. Even though there are some differences and limitations, such as the poor fusion of different materials, the 3D printed beads also offer advantages. Any color available as filament can be printed. Moreover, exactly the number of beads needed can be printed without having to buy unnecessary colors in a set that might never be used.

For those who are not bothered by the reduced adhesion between different materials, perhaps because they only want to create art, the printed beads can still be used effectively. Possibly, other users with different materials might have different experiences. Or a longer exposure to heat might allow the different materials to fuse better. However, it should be reiterated that the use of self-printed beads is at your own risk, especially if they are used as children's toys.

The result from the template, printed plate, and printed beads

Print Settings:

Fuse Beads:

• Layer height: 0.2mm
• Walls:
  • Outside: 3
  • Top/Bottom: 3
• Infill: 0%

Bead Plate:

Follow the instructions from the source above about transparency printing - but here are the most important settings:

• Layer height: 0.1mm
• Walls:
  • Outside: 1 - 2
  • Top/Bottom: Enough so that you get a solid body
  • Top/Bottom Pattern: aligned rectangular
• Speed: 20mm/1s (all)
• Infill: 0%
• Filament: PETG
• Cooling: No cooling