I wanted to create one of those light-up traditional ceramic style Christmas tree and after way too much Tinkercad time later, I have this to offer.
The Trees
There are four tree sizes. Each profile has the tree set-up to print with fuzzy skin. I tried to add minimal supports, so there may be some branches that will have some filament sagging. With the fuzzy skin, it can look a bit like real pine trees. To fix them after the print, I simply heated the saggy threads with a lighter for a few seconds and pressed the saggy threads back into the body of the tree. You could turn on more support, but it will dramatically increase print times, and as I didn't print with them, I can't speak to how well or easily the supports will remove or scar the tree. It is really easy to heat up the small bit of saggy threads and press them back into the body of the tree. See photos.
The four sizes to choose from:
The Bases
The baby tree has no separate base and is intended to sit over an LED votive candle.
The other trees have three bases options, depending on your lighting choice:
The IKEA Kapplake light was my first choice and the inspiration to begin this project. I saw it when we were out shopping for a new dresser for my daughter, and because it was only $3.50, I brought it home. Because it is so small, all three versions of the Ikea light version have an external ‘switch’ on the side of the base that operate the “push to operate” light inside. In order to make the trees useful for as many people as possible, I then made the other two versions.
The base for the large tree had enough room that I created a similar ‘switching’ mechanism for the LED Puck light version. Because there are lots of pucks in different sizes, I added an adjustable screw on the switching arm to adjust between the larger puck lights I have (32mmx77m) and the smaller puck lights offered by BambuLabs (27.6mmx62.2mm). You will have to adjust the screw just right to get the switch to operate properly. It may be a bit finicky, but once set, it should work as intended. The LED puck lights usually have a cool color changing effect, so there's that.
The switch arms are designed to use a small scrap of 1.75mm filament as the hinge pin. See photos.
The ‘Bulbs’
I originally wanted to print my own plastic peg ‘bulbs’. I didn't have any translucent PETG, so went through several versions of the bulbs to eventually get a clear PLA bulb that works. I looked into getting the PETG in different transparent colors, but for the price, it was actually cheaper and faster (those PETG ice profiles take forever) to buy the plastic peg bulbs on Amazon. The were only $8 for 144 bulbs. If you decide to go that route, the trees are designed to hold bulbs with shafts that are 5mm x 10mm, and a total bulb height of 17mm. The bulbs profile I included do work with clear PLA, and with the color changing LED Puck Lights, it can look cool. The bought bulbs are definitely brighter colors, if that is what you want. See photos
No Lighting Option
You could also choose to not use a lighting option, in which case, you cold print the bulbs in multiple solid colors of your choosing and select the simplest base for the tree size you desire.
I have used a several rolls of filament printing several versions of the trees and am pretty confident that if you use a decent dry filament and a clean build plate, you shouldn't have any major issues printing these. let me know if you run into some problems, and be sure to post pictures of your prints :)
24/12/1:
Updated the baby tree profile to remove the fuzzy skin that was erroneously applied to the bulbs and star.
I also added an optional smaller sized bulb to match the scale of the baby tree
Boost Me (for free)
I'm just a dad and husband whose wife wanted me to make one of these trees for her to use. I spent significant additional time making the various size models and used quite a bit of filament printing out the prototypes to confirm fit and finish. A boost would cost you nothing, but be greatly appreciated on my end, and go a long way to convince my wife that my additional effort and time was worth it.
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