A large, elegant, lightweight ornament for the tree. With my settings, it weighs less than 17g.
This is the third in a series of four spiral ornament designs. This season, I plan to publish one Christmas ornament a day. Follow me to stay up to keep up to date.
I've provided the finial as both one piece and two. It's too large to print on my printer in one piece, so I cut it in the middle between the two bulbs.
If you plan to print the ornament in two pieces using two color or rainbow filaments, I recommend printing the two pieces together as I've done in the provided PrusaSlicer project file and GCODE (for a Prusa MK3S+ printer). If not, I recommend printing the two pieces separately to reduce stringing.
To glue the pieces together, I recommend using a slow medium CA (super glue). The best way to do it is by placing a roll of filament on an inexpensive Lazy Susan. Then, place the top half of the ornament upside down in the center of the Lazy Susan. Align the ornament so it's roughly centered on the Lazy Susan and vertical, place a drop of glue at the joint, and attach the bottom half of the ornament. Gently turn the Lazy Susan and adjust the alignment of the two pieces of the ornament until you're happy.
I changed a few settings when I printed it in transparent to make it look more even, including changing seems to random (from aligned) and adjusting the flow (Extrusion Multiplier). Transparent filament tends to be stronger, so I also removed the extra perimeters at the center and made the bottom of each half just 1 layer thick.
For details on all my print settings, check out my Thangs Blog!