Giant Dodecahedron (lampshade, basket, art object!)

When assembled this dodecahedron stands about 33cm tall. It's just about lampshade size, if your ceilings are high enough…

Who doesn't like dodecahedrons? I think it is one of the reasons people start playing D&D. Who wouldn't want to own cool dice shaped like that?

Anyway I had a lot of empty Prusa spools. I put them into a big bag every time I finished some filament and collected them over a while. Then one day had a thought, looking at a D12 on my desk…

I printed corners to make the spool sides form a dodecahedron. It wasn't a particularly easy design as there are reference planes to create at specific angles and some extrusion collisions to figure out, but with the second iteration it worked out very nicely. The hexagonal holes in the Prusa spools unfortunately don't seem to line up nicely (hexagons don't divide into pentagons evenly) so I could not create a snap-in fit without extending the corner outside of the nice geometric solid bounds, but I settled on attaching each printed vertex with three small cables ties. 

To make the dodecahedron you need:

• 12 Prusament spool sides.
• 20 3D-printed vertex pieces attaching with 3 cable ties each

If you want to be able to open the dodecahedron, or to use it as a lampshade:

• 12 Prusament spool sides.
• 15 3D-printed vertex pieces attaching with 3 cable ties
• 5 3D-printed vertex pieces with the slots cut in one face, attaching with 2 cable ties
• “spider” to attach to the inside of one spool,  then it slots in and fastens with a slight twist.

If you want to add a light inside the dodecahedron print the fitting cylinder also. An IKEA “HEMMA” light cord fits nicely into the hole, then the other end of the cylinder fits over the inner part of the spool just like the “spider”. Since both “spider” and light-fitting cylinder mount on the spool flange they can't both be attached to the same spool. If you are hanging this as a light fitting it will work nicely to have the bottom of the dodecahedron open, not that you will need to replace a modern LED often (if ever).

 I like using the spools with the laser-engraved description of what it used to hold. I printed all of the pieces with Prusament recycled (2kg spools). This batch came in this drab olive green, looks pretty good next to the black spool sides. Maybe orange would also work? Looking forward to seeing your makes!

Of course if you need to perform mains power work to hook this up, have a qualified electrician do it for you.