Flag Wave Form

Update 19-Aug-2024: Made the back lip a little bit taller and also added a modifier to the print profile to make the hump more walls. After molding 50+ of these, that area started to deform a little on my original print so printed another one with more walls to be less prone to do that. 

This print can be used to turn a flat printed plate / flag into a wavy flag. Printing the flag in the flat orientation greatly speeds up the print and prevents so many filament changes in multicolor prints that waste filament. 

Print the forms in PETG so they are more temperature tolerant although PLA might work.

Under my profile I have both a square flag pole Square Flag Pole by sage117 - MakerWorld and a round one Round Flag Pole by sage117 - MakerWorld, so you can choose whatever your preference is or print one of each to accompany your flag. 

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To use, place the flat flag on the plate with ~10 mm hanging off to the right. Use a heat gun going back and forth over the plate several times until it starts to become soft and can get it to flex with your finger. Quickly take the top plate of the form and place it over. There is a little bit of a lip so can catch the plate and use to press it up to the top. This helps ensure the plate does not warp in the other direction and that get a flat bottom so does not wobble much when standing up. I left a slight gap at the top so once can see that the full length of the top is being pressed against the top of the bottom form plate. I use a clamp to hold the plates together and give it 5-10 minutes to cool off to ensure the plate keeps the shape as it cools.

This was form idea was taken from dfreshkremer’s cool wavy American flag. I did all my flags about the same dimension as his so our flags and forms can be used universally. The improvements in my design of the his molding form are the gap at the top to see aligned straight and tight, a lip on the top form so can slide it up and keep bottom edge of flag straight, flat area in the middle of both forms to allow using a clamp to hold, and a little bit of reduction to the plastic of form. The curvature is close between the two but not exact.

Place plate ~10 mm over the right of bottom form. Heat plate with heat gun to get soft.

In this image, the slight lip on left side helps push up bottom of flag to make sure keep it uniform / flat base. Note the flat area to apply clamp.

The slight gap at top allows one to see that the top is pushed up flush across.

Leave in form for a few minutes to let the flag cool down then remove admiring the finished wave of the flag.

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You can also support me on Patreon and also to obtain permission for commercial use:

https://www.patreon.com/sageprintsanddesign