Shadow Theatre Pumpkin Lantern with Hand Crank

A jack-o'-lantern with a little Halloween show inside. Turn the crank on the side and a ring with cut-out silhouettes slowly rotates around an LED tea light: a haunted house on a hill, a crescent moon, a graveyard with a dead tree, a small jack-o'-lantern, bats and a witch on a broom. The light glows through the angry carved face, and the wide "theatre window" on the back lets the silhouettes fall onto the wall behind it as moving shadows.

Features

• Hand crank turns the scene ring through a small gear (5 crank turns = one full loop of the scene)

• Hinged lid with a curly stem, opens to put the tea light in

• 100% printed parts: no glue, screws, magnets or other hardware

• Works with any colour-changing LED tea light (green, red, blue all look great)

Tips for the best shadows

• Use an LED tea light with a clear, non-frosted bulb (or one whose frosted flame cover pops off). A frosted flame blurs the shadows into soft blobs.

• Put the lantern about 0.5 to 1 m from a wall.

• LED tea lights only, never a real candle.

Parts (8)

• Body: print upright

• Lid: flat on its cut face (the stem curl is the only part that needs supports)

• Drum base: upright, pins pointing up

• Drum top: upside down

• Scene strips A and B: flat, 1 mm thick

• Gear with shaft: standing on the gear

• Crank: flat

Print settings

• White filament, 0.2 mm layers, 0.4 mm nozzle (per-part filament settings are saved in the 3MF)

• No supports except the stem curl on the lid

• Everything is laid out on 2 plates

Assembly

1. From inside the body, push the gear's shaft out through the side hole. Press the crank onto the flat end of the shaft outside.

2. Put the drum base over the tea-light holder.

3. Bend the two scene strips into the grooves of the drum base, printed top side facing out. (If a strip goes in the other way round, that part of the scene shows mirrored on the wall.)

4. Press the drum top on.

5. Fit the lid on the hinge at the back-left of the body.

6. Switch on the LED tea light, place it in the holder through the lid opening, close the lid and turn the crank.

Videos

• Short: https://youtube.com/shorts/Tb6aQM_TUoY

• Build update video: https://youtu.be/GqPESS6zHD4