❤️ Heart Maze ❤️

Are you ready for Valentine's Day?

These delightful Heart Mazes are perfect for Valentine's Day distributions, a quick print for a fun toy, or a gift for someone you care about. Six styles included! And "Bonus Items" too (see below).

The original concept is the two-layer Heart Maze to be enjoyed as both a visible maze on top and a hidden maze underneath. The maze path is the same, so the top helps as a guide. The heart blockers prevent the ball from dropping into the closed maze when playing on the top alone.

The Heart Maze is designed to easily fit a 4.5 mm (diameter) ball. These are easy to find online. The paths and openings are 6 mm wide, so a slightly larger ball may also work.

How will you choose to play? We plan to print the two-layer style for my kids' Valentine's Day exchange at school. Other included versions are an open tray maze, completely closed (with and without a map on top), or half-and-half open/closed (right and left options).

The maze path is the same for all of the heart styles. It is not a complicated maze to solve, but it has enough challenges for rolling a ball through and it is possible to get through the path when hidden.

Kid tested and approved!

Tip: To help locate the ball when using a closed maze, use a flashlight and hold the light underneath. Or try holding the light to the top surface and look for the ball underneath. This worked well for us a few times.

Another way to play! When bagging them up for valentines, we included extra balls. When used together in an open maze, the challenge was to have ALL balls reach the end. It worked! And keeping it in the clear bag worked well so they wouldn't fall out. See photos for slideshow example.

Valentine's Day Tradition

My kids and I have established a tradition of designing something new to 3D print each year for the valentines that they share with the other students in their classes on Valentine's Day.

• 2020: Heart Magnet
• 2021: Heart Alien Tiny Tessellation
• 2022: Valentine Keychains
• 2023: Heart Spinners
• 2024: Heart Maze

See my Kids & Toys Collection and my Hearts Collection for more designs made with love.

Bonus Models!

I included two test models that I made while exploring the idea of the Heart Maze. These are both "two layers" models in the shape of a circle. The original had no blockers on the ends so the ball dropped quickly into the hole for the closed maze underneath. My son did not like this, so I added the blockers in another version. The maze is similar to the middle of the design for the Heart Maze.

I also included the two-layer Heart Maze without blockers since I had that before adding the extra hearts. My son found it frustrating when the balls would drop too fast and get lost inside. However, you may enjoy the added challenge!

See the pictures at the end of the posted photos for images of bonus items.

Models are approximately 59 x 58 mm in x and y directions. The "Two Layers" models are 14 mm tall (z direction) and the others have a height of 9 mm or 10 mm (those with a 1 mm "map" on a closed top). The bases are 1.5 mm thick.

Idea! Use a filament swap to print the mazes in two (or more) colors. Depending on the model, good swap heights would be 1.5 mm or 9 mm. (The "Heart Blockers" on the Two Layers model end at 11 mm height.)

I printed all models with 0.25 mm layer height, 3 solid top and bottom layers, and 2 perimeters. I set infill to 15%, however all layers and perimeters were solid with the other settings. No raft. Be sure to print with filaments and temperatures that avoid strings!

No supports.
Be sure that your slicer does NOT automatically include supports for any models with closed mazes.

Pro Tip! Bridge Settings
Set the bridging angle to be 45° relative to the symmetry line of the heart. You may need to adjust this in the slicer or rotate the model. It worked well for me at 45°, but other angles could work better. However, I do NOT recommend 0° or 90° since there would be much more unsupported extrusion.

Photo of bridging layer for one of my prints is included above. It isn't perfect, but once the upper layers are done any flaws are invisible. I also have 6 mm of height built into the model for the closed mazes which allows a little extra room for any filament that droops to not obstruct the ball.

Not for commercial use. No derivatives. See © link.