From the Loftsmith Workshop
Rotating shadow lantern for LED tea lights, print-in-place
A little lantern that throws star-like speckles across the wall when an LED tea light sits inside. The diamond-cut sleeve turns on its base, so you can spin the pattern around the room. Change the tea light size, height or number of cut-outs to suit.
3 parts · 96 g · 94 × 94 × 130 mm
Remix of Captive rotary fidget
Ask for the sizes you want to tweak, e.g. “make the width adjustable”.
How to print it
Parts
- sleeve · PLA (white or natural, so it glows) · Upright, open rim up, bearing ring on the bed. Prints in place with the base as one object.
84 x 84 x 120 mm, about 58 g and 91 min. 1.6 mm wall with a rolled 2.8 mm rim. The 'Cut-outs need no support' check measures the shallowest ceiling edge of each pattern: stars 46.6 deg, bats 48.4 deg, diamonds 59.0 deg, flames 59.0 deg. Engine overhang at the default size, with no supports: stars 0.
- base · PLA (same filament as the sleeve) · Flat on the bed inside the sleeve, in the same print object.
78 x 78 x 8.5 mm, about 14 g and 24 min. Tea-light cup 38.8 mm across and 4.5 mm deep, a rounded bead on top of the bearing race, and three cone sockets underneath. Every bearing face has the Bearing clearance gap (0.4 mm by default), and the guide band steps back a further 0.4 mm at the bed against
- plinth · PLA (any dark colour) · Flat side down, pegs up.
94 x 94 x 12.6 mm, about 24 g and 36 min. Its raised hub lifts the base 3 mm, so the sleeve hangs 2.4 mm clear of everything. Three cone pegs stop the base turning.
Print settings
- Layer height
- 0.2 mm
- Walls
- 2 walls (the 1.6 mm sleeve wall prints solid at any wall count)
- Infill
- 15%
- Supports
- None
- Notes
- At the default sliders: about 100 g and 2 h 36 min in total at 2 walls / 15% infill (sleeve and base about 72 g and 1 h 55 min; plinth about 24 g and 36 min). With 3 walls / 15% it is about 113 g and 2 h 58 min. Each piece fits a 180 mm bed, so on an A1 mini print them as two plates. No brim on the
Hardware
- Battery LED tea light, 36-40 mm diameter · Set the Tea light diameter slider to your light (most are about 38 mm). LED only: never use a real candle in a PLA lantern.
Assembly
- Print the sleeve and base as one object (it is a single print group; do not split it). Print the plinth separately.
- Set the lantern on the plinth and turn it until the base drops onto the three cone pegs.
- Hold the plinth and twist the sleeve a few times in both directions until it turns freely on the bearing.
- Switch on the LED tea light and drop it through the open rim into the cup in the base.
- Turn the sleeve by hand to send the shadows round the room. To change the light, lift the lantern off the plinth and tip the tea light out through the rim.
Good to know
- For battery LED tea lights only. PLA softens at about 55 C: never put a candle or any open flame in it.
- The sleeve is turned by hand. It does not spin by itself and will not coast long after a flick, because the printed V-bearing has PLA-on-PLA friction.
- The bearing gaps and capture were checked in the Loftsmith engine, not on a real print. Whether it comes off the bed free depends on your printer and filament. If 0.4 mm fuses, try 0.45-0.5 mm; that also adds play (about 7.9 degrees of rock at 0.5 mm).
- On small sleeves with a high count, the script cuts fewer motifs per row so it can keep at least 12 mm of wall between neighbours. The Cut-outs check says when this happens. For example, at Lantern diameter 70 mm, Cut-outs around 12 and the diamonds pattern, it reports '6.1 x 10.1 mm cut-outs, 11 ar
- The cup fits tea lights 36-40 mm in diameter with 0.4 mm clearance a side. Measure yours before printing.
- The open area is modest (12% of the patterned band for the default stars, up to 16% for flames), so expect a scatter of distinct shapes rather than a wall of light. They are sharpest on a nearby wall in a dark room.
Comments