Spiral Christmas Balls

#Summary
These are a quick, fun, and are very lightweight. Each ball has the same cross-section and twist. The main differences are the size and number of arms.

* Large ball: 80mm diameter, weighs less than 17g, takes about 6 hours to print
* Small ball: 56mm diameter, weighs less than 9g, takes about 3 hours to print

These are part of my [Christmas Collection](https://www.thingiverse.com/dazus/collections/christmas-collection).

I designed these using Affinity Designer (for cross-sections) and Blender (everything else).

The arms need support at multiple points to keep from warping and breaking if you're using an FDM printer. To make this quick and easy, I provided a version of each ornament with built-in supports. I still had Cura add supports, but only where the balls touch the build plate. For details, se the print settings below.

#Print Settings
##Basics

* Layer Thickness: 0.15mm
* Walls: 0.4mm (1 line)
* Top/Bottom thickness: 0.45mm (3 layers)
* Build Plate Adhesion: Brim

If you have holes in your print (from the thin walls), I recommend increasing flow and/or print temperature. You might also decrease print speed and travel speed (I use 30mm/second and 80mm/second).

##Infill

Infill is optional. They should print OK without it, but I added some just at the bottom of each ball. I used Cura's Support Blocker and Per Model Setting's "Modify Settings for Overlaps" to add 20% infill (Lines pattern) for the first 51mm for the large ball and 37mm for the small ball.

##Supports

I recommend using the versions of the balls with built-in supports. You'll still need a little support for the first few layers (where the ball touches the build plate), but my supports make printing the arms of the ball easy. You can remove my supports with your bare hands (no tools) and they leave little or no marks on the print.

I recommend printing these with Cura-generated supports "touching buildplate" with a 60-65 degree overhang angle and a brim for the supports.

For support infill, use Concentric pattern, 10% density. Roof density of 75%, floor density of 50% works well and releases cleanly.

The small ball doesn't need any supports for the inside roof. I found it printed very cleanly. 

The large ball printed well enough for my taste without supports for the roof. It print was a little rough, but it only shows if you pick the ornament up and look up from the bottom of the ornament. When it's hanging on a tree, you'll never see that part of it. There's enough space between the arms of the ornament that you could get tools in to cut up and remove supports if you want to add them, but I don't think it's worth the effort.

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CC BY-NC-ND
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**ABOUT THE DESIGN**
This is a new variation on my Christmas Balls with Integrated Stems and diamond patterns.

**NOT TO BE SOLD**
**I'm sharing my files so that you can make them for yourselves or give them away as gifts. I hope you enjoy them. I do not authorize sale of my work by anyone. Please don't ask me.**

**RESIZING**
These should scale up well, but I'm not sure how much smaller you could print them using a consumer FDM printer. Using a resin printer, you could probably print them much smaller.

**PRINT TIME**
About 4.5 hours.

**PRINT SETTINGS**
The trickiest parts to print is the top of the stems. Using FDM, if you don't temp, speed, flow, and cooling right, the thin parts of the stem will melt as you print. Thinner walls help. If that's not enough, try increasing the layer height. I decreased the print temp from my usual 200 to 190 for this, decreased the flow from 115 to 105, and increased the outer wall speed from 20 to 30 mm/sec. That was enough to go from stem that was molten goo to one that printed perfectly.

*Thickness*

* Layer thickness: .15 mm
* Wall thickness: 0.4 – 0.8 mm.

I had the best results using Cura setting the default width to 0.4 mm with an alternate extra wall. 

*Infill*
This does not need any infill. JUST DON'T DO IT.

*Speed*
* Outer Wall: 30 mm/sec
* Inner Wall: 30 mm/sec
* Top/Bottom Speed: 30 mm/sec
* Travel Speed: 50 mm/sec

*Build Plate Adhesion*
I relied on the supports for build plate adhesion. 

*Supports*
You will probably need supports for both bed adhesion and the overhang on the first few layers. You shouldn't need supports for the loop at the top. Adding them would just increase the chances the supports broke and caused the print to fail. 

* Support Structure: Normal
* Support Placement: Touching Buildplate
* Support Overhang Angle: 49 Degrees

I added a support blocker 75 mm x 75 mm x 110 mm set 15 mm above the build plate so that the supports would only be added to the bottom of the ornament.

CHRISTMAS

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