Printable brushes: poxy mushroom-style

A mushroom brush is of course a brush for cleaning mushrooms. This one is a mushroom-shaped mushroom brush, but that doesn't make for a great title. Somewhat unusually, the design includes 3D printed bristles. Very cool on one hand, but it does come with a bunch of issues - take care when slicing & printing!

The bristles work best when printed in PETG, in my hands. I'm curious to hear other peoples stories, but PLA was an abject failure. Flexible filaments might be interesting to try as well. In the printed part, the bristles stretch between a sacrificial wall and the base. A straight cut (unlike the one shown for the larger red/white mushroom brush) releases them easily. A serrated knife should do the trick.

The smaller mushroom design is modular. The bristles come as a block with a M22x3 socket, allowing an easy swap of the 'handle' part of the model.

The larger mushroom is currently a monolithic block, but the 'cap' cover can be separately printed for either design, allowing some interesting colour choices.

If there is interest, I can upload a full model for multi-colour capable printers, including a separate model for the 'dots'.

Putting the small cap on without cracking was difficult, the uploaded model is already 5% oversized, which worked well. If it sits too loose, add a dab of glue, or print a few % smaller.

Scaling the models probably won't work well, as the bristles need to have certain dimensions to work well.

Print instructions

Category: Kitchen & Dining Print Settings

Printer Brand: Prusa

Printer: I3 MK3S

Rafts: Doesn't Matter

Supports: No

Resolution: 0.2

Infill: 5-15%

Filament: Amazon Basics PETG
Notes:

PETG is probably best for the bristles. Align with the 'flat' side of the bristles parallel to the print surface, and carefully check the layer view after slicing the file. If the bristles don't show up, they won't print!