An elegant ornament for the top of the tree with complex geometry based on the cathedrals of Europe. Rotate it - it looks different from every angle!
This is the fourth in a series of four “cathedral” ornament designs. Tomorrow, I'll publish the first of a new series of ornaments. I plan to publish one Christmas ornament a day for the rest of the season. Follow me to stay up to keep up to date.
At 100% scale, the topper is a good size for a very large tree (2+ meters). I've provided PrusaSlicer project files (and GCODE for a Prusa MK3S+) with the parts scaled to 85%, which works well for trees around 1.5 – 2 meters tall. For smaller trees, I recommend printing at 75%. The design will slice well below 75%, but you may find the openings are too small. You may want to print the first 1-2cm to test the size of the opening.
I've provided the topper as both one piece and two. It's too large to print on my printer in one piece, so I created two interlocking pieces to make gluing it easier. There's about a 0.2mm gap between the pieces, so it should work as-is with most printers and filaments. If it's way off, you could try adjusting the XY Size Compensation to increase or decrease the gap by 0.1 – 0.2mm, though I'm not sure how that would impact the overall design. If you try adjusting XY Size Compensation, try printing just a could cm of the two pieces.
Both halves of the ornament print “right side up” so you can print with two or three color filaments and get the colors to line up easily assuming your filament's colors are consistent. If you want to use a rainbow filament, the colors will transition smoothly from the bottom to the top of the ornament.
To glue the pieces together, I recommend using a slow medium CA (super glue). The best way to do it is by placing a roll of filament on an inexpensive Lazy Susan. Then, place the bottom half of the ornament “Right side up” in the center of the Lazy Susan. Align the ornament so it's roughly centered on the Lazy Susan and vertical, place a drop of glue at the joint, and attach the top half of the ornament. Gently turn the Lazy Susan and adjust the alignment of the two pieces of the ornament until you're happy.
For details on all my print settings, check out my Thangs Blog!