Bunny coaster set

The story

The tallest of the family: a bunny in a pink hood with long ears, a white face, a yellow nose, and a little white flower tucked on one ear. The flower peeks past the ear’s edge on purpose, and it prints fine with no support.

The flower made the holder work for it. The first holder was cut from the pink outline only, so the petals poked into its wall and four coasters wouldn’t sit flat. Now the wall bulges out round the flower, and they drop right in.

The charms are tiny two-colour flowers, pink with a yellow centre. Their sockets took the longest to dial in: one plate of six sizes, marked with dots, settled it.

Filament recipe

• 4 coasters (hood)PolyTerra PLA, Pastel Candy · 159 g
• Faces + flowersPolyTerra PLA, Cotton White · 12 g
• HolderPolyTerra PLA, Cotton White · 48 g
• Noses + flower centresPolyTerra PLA, Pastel Banana · 0.3 g
• EyesPolyTerra PLA, Charcoal Black · 0.5 g
• 6 flower charmsPolyTerra PLA, Pastel Candy + Banana · 1.4 g

Charm fit: push fit and the dots

Each charm has a little + peg on its back that presses into a + socket in the holder. No glue: the fit holds it. The fit is the tiny gap between peg and socket, a few hundredths of a millimetre, and every printer prints a hair wider or narrower.

So every charm carries dots on its back that tell its size. Fewer dots = snugger, more dots = looser. The same dots mean the same size in every The3DG kit.

Our fit: the two end sockets: 0.22 mm (4 dots); the next two in: 0.24 mm (5 dots); the two middle sockets: 0.26 mm (6 dots). Those charms are already on the holder’s plate.

• ●0.16 mmsnuggest: a firm push
• ●●0.18 mmsnug
• ●●●0.20 mmmedium
• ●●●●0.22 mmmedium-easy
• ●●●●●0.24 mmeasy
• ●●●●●●0.26 mmloosest

Press a charm in with your thumb, then turn the holder upside down. Too hard to press in? Take the next dot up. Falls out? Take one dot down. The Extras plate has two of every size, so you can find yours in one go.

Tips from the workshop

What we learned while designing it, so your print works first time.

1. What happened: Two of the four yellow noses came out a muddy greenish grey.

   What fixed it: Black was bleeding into the yellow: our 3MF tool had copied a small purge from its template. Black to yellow now purges 745 mm³, and the noses come out clean.

   Learn: What's flow? →

2. What happened: The flower’s petals poked 1.6 mm into the holder’s wall, so four coasters wouldn’t sit flat.

   What fixed it: The wall now bulges out round the flower with 0.9 mm to spare, clear of the charm sockets.

3. What happened: The first flower charms either wouldn’t go in or fell straight out.

   What fixed it: One plate of six sizes, marked 1 to 6 dots, showed every socket wants its own: looser in the middle, where the wall curves most.