Rain Stick (Percussion Instrument)

Rain Sticks are believed to first have been played by the indigenous Mapucha people of Chile. Traditional rain sticks are made of dried cactus and filled with small stones, rice, or beans. When the stick is upended the stones fall and strike protrusions inside the hollow cactus and make a sound reminiscent of rainfall. This 3D printed rain stick functions the same way, except all the parts are printed with PLA plastic.

Print the digital rice pellets first. Then print the tube. The print is set to pause in Bambu at layer 1022. Pour in the pellets when it is paused, then resume printing.

When printing the tube you will receive a warning for “floating cantilever”. Ignore the warning and print anyway. Watch the first bridging as the cross members are printed. If the bridging is mostly successful, let the print continue. If your printer is not capable of long bridging, try the second model with shorter bridges.

There are four models of the rain stick included in the print profile. The Standard Rain Stick requires long bridging to build the cross members without support. Bambu printers are capable of this, despite the warnings from the slicer. The second alternative profile has a center column which makes the bridges much shorter. Use that tube model if your printer can't do the long bridging.

A second set of models have been resized to 249mm for printers with a 250mm max Z height, such as the P1S and the X1C.

Along with being a rain stick, it also makes an excellent shaker or maraca. Have fun making music.