Dumpling Press Maker print-in-place

This dumpling press will bring fun to dumpling making for all ages. It’s shaped like a shark head with wide open mouth and scary teeth :). In addition to the fun shape, this is a stronger design than some flimsy dumpling press in online stores. Now anyone can easily seal the wrapper properly around the filling and make a good-looking dumpling every time.

It’s specifically sized to use with the dumpling wrappers available in the stores. The wrapper that I use are the Twin Marquis Shanghai style dumpling wrapper (see the 5th photo). The Hong Kong style is too thin to use with this press. Twin Marquis is the only brand that's available in my area. Please let me know if the ones that you have is a different size.

Dumpling wrappers are usually in the same section with Tofu. If not available in your regular stores, they surely can be found in any Chinese grocery stores (not necessarily in the same spot with Tofu there). Please be reminded that dumpling wrappers are round which are different from the square-shaped wonton wrappers.

If one prefers to make wrappers from scratch, please make the diameter of the wrapper 3.9 inches ( 99 mm).

It’s easy to use: 1) Place one wrapper on the press making sure that it’s center; 2) Dip a finger into a bowl of water and ran it around the edge of the wrapper to help sealing; 3) add a scant spoon of filling. I found it helps to imagine a center folding line and placing the filling along this line (see the 4th photo ); 4) lift the top of the shark head and press down to seal. For complete instructions/recipe on how to make dumplings, please google online sources.

It’s easy to print: No support is needed. The STL file comes with correct orientation on build plate. Furthermore, this is a print-in-place design. No assembly is needed.

Although the dumpling press doesn’t have prolong contact with the wrapper, please use safe filaments such as PLA.

Print time: 4 hours on fast coreXY printers, 12.5 hours on regular cartesian printers.

Printing suggestions:

Filament: PLA
Layer height; 0.2 mm
Wall loops (wall count): 4, Top: 3, Bottom: 3
Infill: 20% Gyroid or 25% Cubic
Ironing: All top surfaces (not just the highest surface or layer)
Support: Not needed

It can be printed with one color and it will look good, but a multi-color print looks even better.
For multi-color printing, a grey or light blue color is recommended for the shark head base, red color for the lip (the thin layer between the base and the teeth), and white for the teeth.

It’s designed in a way so the color swap can be done by layer height.

To use the 'Pause And Swap' method to swap filaments, assuming printing at 0.2 mm layer height, the following layer ranges are suggested to ensure good color separation between the different features of the shark head.

Head base: layers 1 - 65 for silver, grey or light blue color
Lip (the thin circular layer between the base and the teeth): layers 66 - 75 for red color
Teeth: layers 76 - 94 for white color
Remaining top part of the print: layers 95 - 133 for silver, grey or light blue color

For printers that have an AMS (automatic material system) and the slicer to automatically swap filaments, please set the color swap by layer height or height range. By assigning color by height range only 3 filament swaps are needed during the print.

If the slicer, such as Bambu Studio, uses a graphical interface and cannot specify exact layer or height range, then please do the selection visually. Use the following as a guide to set the height range of the selection tool to make the task easier.

Head base: 13mm
Note: 1) If the default color in your slicer is the desired color (silver, grey or light blue), then obviously one can skip setting color for the head base; 2) Bambu Studio’s selection tool has a maximum of 8mm height range, so one would have to select twice to have the base covered; 3) It’s difficult to select the very bottom of the base using the graphical tool, but one can tilt the model a little and click at the bottom to assign the color.

Lip: 2mm
Teeth: 5mm
Remaining top part of the print: 8 or 9mm (Bambu Studio’s selection tool has a maximum of 8mm height range, so one may have to select twice to have the height covered)

If using Bambu Studio, please make sure the Filament Change Times is 4 (apparently it counts the very first filament used at the bottom as 1 change). A number higher than 4 in this print will mean there is a layer or two (can be hard to see) somewhere that are left with the default color. It will print but it will incur unnecessary extra filament purges and swaps.

After printing is finished, inspect the dumpling press to make sure there are no printing defects that may leave small bits of extra filament on surfaces. Remove these bits if found so they won’t get broken off and embed into the wrapper during use.