Spinning Christmas Tree

This delightful Christmas Tree has a secret - it spins! Not like the killer Xmas Tree in Dr. Who, though (if you know, you know).

Using principles from the Helicone Kinetic Sculpture (example here) each layer of leaves can rotate over the one below, but not all the way round. This causes a whirling cascade if you spin it with enough vigour. The Trunk sits freely on the Ground base for stability when being twiddled.

Printing

This is what I used for the model seen - you can of course vary colours and texture as you wish! I alternated the leaves between Green and Red, but it's up to you!

• Leaves - 1,3,5,7,9,…25: CC3D Jade Green Silk PLA - 0.2mm, 2/4/2 walls/top/bottom, 15% 2D infill
• Leaves - 2,4,6,8,10,…24: Overture Christmas Red Silk PLA - 0.2mm, 2/4/2 walls/top/bottom, 15% 2D infill
• Leaves - 26,27: Elegoo White PLA+. 0.16mm, 3/5/3 walls/top/bottom, 15% 2D infill, reduced speed, fuzzy skin (see below)
• Leaves - TreeTop: Elegoo White PLA+. 0.16mm, 3/5/3 walls/top/bottom, 15% 2D infill, reduced speed, fuzzy skin (see below)
• Leaves - Star: Amazon Basice Gold Silk PLA, 0.16mm, 4/4/4 walls/top/bottom, 15% 2D infill, reduced speed, flat H2H bed plate (for shine)
• Frame  - Trunk: Jayo Chocolate PLA (I'd have used a Wood PLA, eg. Isanmate, if I had enough), 0.2mm, 3/4/3 walls/top/bottom, 15% 3D infill, fuzzy skin
• Frame - Ground: Elegoo White PLA+, 0.2mm, 3/3/3 walls/top/bottom, 15% 3D infill, fuzzy skin. You could use a grassy green, or something rocky like Overture Sedimentary Rock PLA
• Frame  - Spindle: Any PLA+, use enough walls to be solid.

Assembly

Once you have all the parts, start by dropping the Spindle into the Trunk. Then drop Leaves - 1 on and rotate it to slot onto the little tag on the Trunk. Do the same for all the other Leaves, slotting them in as you add them. Then pop the TreeTop on the spinde. 

Carefull place the assembly onto the Ground part, and try twiddling the top to test that everything rotates freely (apart from where it's meant to catch!). If it doesn't spin freely check that none of the leaves are warped, and that their round upper surfaces in the centre are flat.

Once you are happy with that, dissasemble (you might get away with lifting the Leaves and Spindle together without them scattering everywhere!). Separate out the Spindle, then pop some glue on the end and replace it into the Trunk. Make sure there is no visible glue on the Trunk.

When set, add all the Leaves back on, and carefully spot glue on the other end of the Spindle and add the TreeTop. You very much do not want any glue leaking here either!

Finally glue in the Star, and once its all set, you're done!

Notes on Fuzzy Skin and Modifiers

If you haven't used Fuzzy Skin or Part Modifiers before (and your slicer supports them), then this is a great way to learn. I used both on all the snowy parts and the Trunk, to get a nice effect.

Fuzzy Skin gives a roughened texture to the sides of a model, perfect for more organic parts, like the Trunk here. Just enable it and set it to Contour only (ie. the outside). That's all well and good, but we don't want Fuzzy Skin in areas where parts slide against each other as they will stick and catch - this is where Part Modifiers come in.

There are many YouTube tutorial videos on how to use Part Modifiers, but I'll summarise here and tell you where I used them. A Part Modifier is a shape in your slicer that you can place somewhere in, on, around a part, that gives you the ability to change parameters and variables for just the area/volume where the Modifier intersects with the part. To add a Part Modifier, select the part you want to modify, right-click and Add Modifier, here you can choose what shape you want. Then you can move it around using the move/size tools as normal to place it where you want to change parameters - in this case we want to disable the Fuzzy Skin in certain areas.

So for the Ground part I only wanted Fuzzy Skin on the outside, not on the central pivot point. I added a Cylinder Modifier and placed it in the centre of the part, moving and resizing it so that it just overlaps perimeter of the inner circle. Then I changed the parameter of that Modifier to disable Fuzzy Skin.

For the Trunk and Leaves (26,27) I places a small cylinder over the top, where the little tag is, to keep that smooth for the layer above. Finally for the TreeTop I added one over the top 5-10 layers so that the thinnest parts wouldn't disintegrate when printing.

I hope you enjoy this, and if you do, then please:

EdinBearDragon