Fully Customizable Christmas Tree Star Topper

What do you do when lockdown prevents you from going to the store to buy a new Christmas tree topper? You design and print your own, of course! Well, that's what we did!

In fact, we are so pleased with how it came out, we printed several and we are sharing the files so that you can print one too!

This fully customisable star can be adjusted for Christmas trees of any size. Choose the size and shape of your star, the number of points and whether to print it as a whole or in two halves.

OpenSCAD Customizer Options

This design has the following Customizer options:

• Star_Diameter - The overall diameter of the star
• Star_Thickness - The overall thickness of the star minus Middle_Extrusion
• Middle_Extrusion - Adds a flat section to the middle of the star which can improve support adhesion
• Points - The number of points
• Inner_Point_Diameter_Percent - The diameter of the inner points as a percentage of the outer points
• Material_Thickness - Thickness of the material
• Mount_Hole_Diameter - The diameter at the bottom of the mount hole
• Half - Cut star in half (will also rotate for printing)

Design considerations

• We recommend creating a 'whole' star (Half set to false) if possible.
• If creating a 'whole' star (Half set to false), we recommend using 'Tree supports' (in Cura - other slicers may use another name for this feature). To help with adhesion, we recommend using a Middle_Extrusion value of at least 3-5.
• If creating a 'half' star (Half set to true) you will need to glue the halves together. Consider using a Material_Thickness of 3-5 to ensure enough surface area for the glue.

Illuminating

If you wish to illuminate the star: https://youtu.be/5Kj1BdNsMQc

• We recommend using a clear or light filament.
• Use a low Material_Thickness value to help the light pass through.
• If using a clear filament, you can use a low infill (10 - 20%) and different infill patterns to add texture.
• Ensure your star is wide enough for lights to be inserted by adjusting the Star_Thickness and Middle_Extrusion values.
• A 'whole' star (Half set to false) can be illuminated by inserting the last few of your Christmas tree lights. Ensure the Mount_Hole_Diameter value is large enough to allow your lights to be inserted.
• You could create a 'half' star (Half set to true) and install custom lighting, such as by hot glueing some LEDs inside the star.

Render/Export Notes

Rendering can be slow, so we've provided some STL exports of all the presets.

If you render and export your own design, you may see the following warnings, which can be safely ignored:

sh
Object may not be a valid 2-manifold and may need repair!


Printing

Recommended slicer settings:

• Resolution: 0.1mm - 0.2mm
• Infill: 10 - 20% should suffice, but could be up to 100%.
• Supports: Yes
  • Whole star: If using Cura we recommend using the Tree supports option and adding a 'Brim' to help the Tree supports adhere to your print bed
  • Half star: Regular supports should be fine
• Rafts: Doesn't matter

License

The "Christmas Tree Star Topper" models (.stl) are licensed under the CC BY license by Code and Make.

The "Christmas Tree Star Topper" code (.scad & .json) is licensed under The MIT License by Code and Make.

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