3D Printed Earrings in TinkerCad
Check out these earrings shared on TinkerCad, or our 3D printed earring Flickr album.
Size Limits
To minimize print time:
Your shape will be up to 3mm thick. Your shape should be 25.4mm-40mm (1-1.5 inches),
You will need to add at least one 3mm hole for the earring jump ring.
Here is a plain sample to show what the measurements look like with the ruler on:
A note about designing efficiently for the 3D printer: a design that is "laying down" tends to print faster than a design that is "standing up" -- laying down has fewer layers, and standing up has more.
Advantages of TinkerCad
Create a free TinkerCad account at TinkerCad.com.
TinkerCad is free
It autosaves your work
It is easy to share your work to Thingiverse.com
Importing SVG files is easy
It includes short lessons you can practice later
Starting TinkerCad
After creating a new account, TinkerCad automatically starts in lesson mode.
Go to New Project or New Design. Many of our shape and tool options are on the right.
Using TinkerCad
Use the white cubes to resize objects.
Use the cone to raise and lower objects along the Z-axis.
Use the curved handles to rotate or flip objects.
Check Alignment, if applicable
Select All, go to Adjust > Align. Click on a gray dot to align to Top/Middle/Bottom, or Left/Center/Right.
Add a hole for the jump ring, or add a ring for the jump ring
For a hole, try the Hole: Cylinder.
Select All and Group.
Copy and Paste
Now that you've designed one earring, don't forget to copy and paste it so you have a pair. (If you have problems printing two at a time, you can always go back to delete the second earring, and run the print job twice.)
Name and Download
Click on Design. Select Properties to rename your file. When finished renaming, select Download for 3D printing. Select STL. Save your file. We'll collect files for processing in MakerWare and for printing.
Survey
Surveys are here: https://sites.google.com/site/cplmakerlab/surveys