Snowflake Trees

These snowflake trees are assembled on a tapered center post for display. There are two styles of center posts. One is hollow (prints well in vase mode) which makes it easy to light up the tree with an LED tealight. The other post is solid with a 3 mm hole in the center so you can run a string (or pipe cleaner) through the post and hang your creation. The snowflake branches can be used on either center post.

I have included several different snowflakes. There are 2 complete sets of 8 snowflakes each. These are already scaled from 100% down to 30% in 10% increments. The other snowflakes are all at 100% and can be easily scaled in PrusaSlicer. Just create a new instance and scale to your desired size (10% increments work well and creates nice spacing between the “branches”). I recommend scaling in X/Y only to preserve the thickness of the snowflakes in the Z direction.

I recommend printing the tree topper stars in a different color. Transparent/translucent filaments look great.

Hanging Trees

To assemble the hanging trees, insert your string or pipe cleaner through the post first and then add the branches by size in descending order. Add the “Tree Topper Star (string hole)” to finish off your tree.

Tealight Trees

For the tealight trees, break away the built in support from the bottom of the tealight base and insert the post in through the bottom of the base. The post should form a nice friction fit with a small amount of the post left exposed in the bottom of the base. Add the snowflake branches by size in descending order. Top your tree off with the “Star Topper (insert)”. Place the tree over an electronic tealight and watch the lightshow!

Creating Your Own Snowflakes

If you'd like to create your own alternate snowflakes, I recommend keeping the diameter of the largest branch somewhere between 120 mm - 150 mm. Make the 100% branch so the center hole is 16 mm in diameter. As you scale it down to create other branches, the center hole will shrink proportionately to create a consistent spacing on the tapered center hole.

Other notes

The tealight base and solid post have built-in supports in the bottom of the parts that should be easy to break loose and remove.

Silk, glittery, or translucent filaments all look great with these trees. Try to use the most transparent colors for the hollow center post to allow the most light through.

It took a couple of iterations, but I found that a 3 mm hole in the solid post works well for pushing string through. My wife had the genius idea to try a pipe cleaner and it worked really well!

When loading the 3MF files into PrusaSlicer, if you are alerted that there are parts at multiple heights, be sure to choose “No” so all the parts are treated as separate objects and drop to the build plate.