Xmas Tree Cufflinks & Shirt Studs

thingiverse

The full Tux kit! I wore these to our formal office party. A big hit. Instructions It's the first time anyone has ever been a little late for a party because he was waiting for a cufflink to come off a printer! It's just as well that the paint dries rapidly. The stl is sized for the shirt studs on a standard dress shirt. After printing a set, I scaled them up in the Replicator 2 software to 170% to make the cufflinks. Printed 100% infil for the studs, 70% for the cufflinks. Printed at 235 degrees extrude temperature. Most importantly, to paint easily and attractively you need the tree facing upwards when it's printed. You pretty well have to print with raft and supports in that orientation. That's no problem for the cufflinks, but hard to remove for the shirt studs - I broke a few, the yield was about 60%. See the photo for what happens - delicate little things. I painted with my favorite colouring tool - a Unipaint marker pen. See the photo. This oil-based paint applies more evenly and accurately than the acrylic water-based I've been using and best of all, dries really quickly.