Apollo 11 Jigsaw Puzzles

The puzzle is available for small printers (200mm) and large printers (300mm). The large puzzle has 191 pieces and is the version featured in the cover photo. The smaller puzzle has 99 pieces. I achieved the marbling effect by printing with a fast change tri-color filament that changed from white to pink to black.

Each puzzle (large and small) is made of two pieces using the negative volume feature of slicers. When you overlap two meshes and set one to be a negative volume, the volume of the second is cut away from the first mesh just as if you performed a boolean cut in Fusion of Blender. The advantages of this technique are that this doesn't crash the software, take hours to process or generate meshes filled with errors. To print it, load the puzzle and cutter into your slicer and apply the cutter as a negative volume. If you use PrusaSlicer, you can just use my project files.

Since the CSM (Command Service Module - rocket-like thing) in the puzzle is so tall, it's the hardest to separate after the print. So, I've added a third mesh for each puzzle size, which acts like a mask. The third mesh is also to me used as a negative volume. When all three pieces (sculpture, cutter and mask) are used together, you can print just the puzzle pieces that make up the CSM to test your settings. It takes about 1/4 the time to print that the whole puzzle takes.

I've included the 2D vector drawings that I used to create the puzzle cutters.

Print Settings

• Perimeters: 1

• Perimeter Generator: Classic (This makes the pieces separate a lot easier)

• Seams: Random (This also makes the pieces separate a lot easier)

• Bottom Layers: 2

• Top Layers: 4

• Infill: 10% Rectilinear

• Top Infill Pattern: Concentric

• Brim: I used a brim for the 200mm puzzle, but not the 300mm puzzle