Press Fit Nativity Scene

This is a 3 story press fit nativity scene! Assembly is super easy, and you can have a lot of fun customizing the character placement. Everything you need is included as a single profile download, spread across 10 plates. The two back walls (you'll see them in the assembly instructions below) have holes in them to run lights throughout the base of the structure should you so desire.

What is press fit? You just snap parts together, it's fun and satisfying! - tolerances are very tight so no glue is needed (except for the very final outer star, which you glue to the inner star). Most parts have a custom X-Y hole compensation and X-Y contour compensation. If you find a part is just too hard to push into a hole or part, then adjust the X-Y hole compensation in your slicer (increasing it makes a fit less snug, decreasing it makes it tighter). However, I think I found good settings as long as your printer and filaments are dialed in and working great.

I built this for larger build plates - It is possible for this to print on an A1 Mini but you will need to scale parts. Do NOT scale the Z axis, only the X/Y axis and make sure you scale every single part the same. If anyone has an A1 Mini and wants to test this, I will create a profile and we can see how it goes.

All parts are easily colored in your slicer, especially the characters and objects - I intentionally added many parts to each character so you can use the fill tool in BambuStudio to easily select and color parts. An example of coloring some characters:

I recommend starting with plate 1, which has a ladder and staircase. The staircase requires assembly and is fast to print, and will give you a good idea on how the fit is for the rest of the prints. I don't include instructions for the staircase assembly, as it should be pretty simple and self explanatory. Let me know otherwise!

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO CLEAN YOUR BUILD PLATE BEFORE YOU START. And also make sure to clean the build plate every few prints to ensure perfect plate adhesion for the parts.

What's included:

• Plate 1 - Staircase (6 parts), Ladder
• Plate 2,3,4,5 - Nativity Structure Parts
• Plate 6 - Stable Structure Parts and Star (base star, outer decoration star)
• Plate 7 - Side Roof Awning
• Plate 8 - Animals
  • 2 Lamb
  • 2 Oxen
  • 3 Camels
• Plate 9 - Characters
  • Joseph
  • Mary
  • Baby Jesus
  • 3 Wisemen
  • Shepherd
  • Angel
• Plate 10 - Objects
  • 2 Palm Trees
  • 3 Fences

Main Structure Assembly

Here I will attempt to do my best with assembly instructions for the main structure. It's actually super easy, so I took pictures of each step to help you along.

Step 1 Put the base down as seen here
Step 2 Add the back wall, with the hole at the bottom right. That hole is there for running lights if you want!
Step 3 Add the middle wall, with the large hole at the bottom left (again, another hole for lights if you want!)
Step 4 Add the left wall (it has a thin L-shaped bottom wall)
Step 5 Add the right wall
Step 6 Add the small middle wall insert (found on plate 4, it's the small part at the top)
Step 7 Add the front stable wall, it connects to the left, middle, and right walls.
Step 8 Add the two bottom floors. The left floor has 3 slots and the right floor has 4 slots so you know which goes where.
Step 9 Add the long top floor
Step 10 Add the top backing wall (It press fits into the back of the floor from step 9)
Step 11 Connect the first stable piece (doesn't matter which way it faces, pick the pretty side)
Step 12 Connect the second stable piece (they are both the same, pick the pretty side to face out)
Step 13 Connect both the stable wall pieces to the left and right sides
Step 14 Connect both stable roof parts. Make sure the little nubs are sticking out at the center - this is where the star will go
Step 15 Add both awning supports to the middle wall, you will see holes for them.
Step 16 Add the awning roof on top of the supports
Step 17 Add the star to the top stable. The star comes in 2 parts, the base part has holes to connect. The inner star needs to be glued to the base star (optional).

That's it for the structure! It takes 5-10 minutes to put together and it's a lot of fun. All of the characters, fences, trees and animals have an included base plate that they press into so they can stand up. No instructions needed there, it's quite simple! Once you have the structure built, you can place the characters and objects anywhere you want, make it your own!

I hope you enjoy this. I spent 2 weeks converting this from my laser cutting machine to work with a 3d printer and I am so excited with how it turned out.

Want to sell physical copies of my designs? Head to my Patreon page for a license

Interested in other festive prints? Check out my Press Fit Santa's Sleigh, or perhaps some elegant gift tags!