From the Loftsmith Workshop

Christmas village for fairy lights, LED spacing 50-120 mm

Turns a string of fairy lights into a little Christmas village on the shelf. Each bulb sits inside a house or a tree, and the walls have small cut-out windows so the glow shines through. Set the spacing between your LEDs and the number of houses to match your string.

12 parts · 155 g · 376 × 58 × 96 mm

by Loftsmith Workshop

Row of small white houses with red roofs and a tree with a red star, joined on linked base tiles
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No adjustable sizes

Ask for the sizes you want to tweak, e.g. “make the width adjustable”.

Change it in the Studio

Parts

  • street-tile ×4 · PLA, white or light grey · Flat as modelled, groove up

    One tile per LED; its length equals the LED spacing. 103.5 x 58 x 7.5 mm at 100 mm spacing (53.5 x 48 mm at 50 mm); about 17 g and 27 min each at the default.

  • house-gable · PLA, white or natural (translucent) for · Upright, open side down on its plinth

    Footprint scales with spacing: 41 x 41 mm at 50 mm, 51 x 51 mm from 60 mm up. 51 x 51 x 53.6 mm at the default; about 12 g, 25 min.

  • roof-gable · PLA, red · Ridge up as modelled, eaves on the bed

    About 10 g, 21 min at the default.

  • house-tower · PLA, white or natural (translucent) · Upright, open side down

    Footprint scales with spacing: 41 x 41 mm at 50 mm, 51 x 51 mm from 60 mm up. 51 x 51 x 85.3 mm at the default; about 18 g, 37 min.

  • roof-tower · PLA, red · Ridge up as modelled

    60 degree roof; about 13 g, 26 min at the default.

  • tree · PLA, white or natural (translucent) · Upright on its round plinth

    Footprint scales with spacing: 41 mm across at 50 mm, 51 mm from 60 mm up. 68.4 mm tall at the default; about 10 g, 24 min.

  • star · PLA, red · Flat on the bed

    Under 1 g, about 5 min.

  • house-shop · PLA, white or natural (translucent) · Upright, open side down

    Footprint scales with spacing: 41 x 41 mm at 50 mm, 51 x 51 mm from 60 mm up. 51 x 51 x 54.5 mm at the default; about 12 g, 25 min.

  • roof-shop · PLA, red · Ridge up as modelled

    About 10 g, 20 min at the default.

Print settings

Layer height
0.2 mm
Walls
2
Infill
15%
Supports
None
Notes
Default street (4 tiles, 3 houses with roofs, tree and star): about 159 g and 4 h 57 min of PLA at 2 walls and 15% infill, from the build report. Each piece is small, so you can print the street a house at a time. Print shells, tree and tiles in white or natural PLA so the 1.0 mm walls glow; roofs a

Hardware

  • Copper-wire LED fairy-light string, battery or USB powered · Not included. Fits LED spacing 50-120 mm, wire 0.5-2.0 mm, LED beads 2.5-6 mm across. Low-voltage strings only.
  • Glue dot or poster putty (optional) · Only if you want roofs or houses fixed in place; they are held by gravity and a slip fit.

Assembly

  1. Print one street tile per LED and join them in a row by dropping each tile's two dovetail tabs down into the slots of the next tile.
  2. Lay the fairy-light string along the centre groove and drop one LED bead into the pocket at the centre of each tile; the battery box or USB plug stays beyond the end of the row.
  3. Slide each house or tree straight down over the round ring on its tile; its walls cover the wire on both sides.
  4. Set each roof on its house so the barge boards hang outside the front and back gable walls, and push the star's tab into the socket on the tree tip.
  5. Switch the lights on. Use the Lift house off view to see where the LED sits under each house.

Good to know

  • For low-voltage battery or USB LED fairy lights only; not for mains-powered or incandescent strings.
  • Nothing grips the string: it lies in the groove, each bead sits in its pocket, and the house walls cover the wire. Between houses the wire lies in an open groove and can lift out if the string is pulled.
  • Measure your string's LED spacing over several LEDs before printing. Each bead pocket allows about 1.2 mm of drift either way, so strings with uneven spacing may not centre in every house.
  • The bead stays in its pocket only when it is at least 0.6 mm wider than the wire groove (wire + 0.3 mm, never under 1.0 mm). For example, a 2.0 mm wire needs a bead of 2.9 mm or more.
  • Houses are a slip fit (0.15 mm per side) on the tile ring and roofs rest by gravity. Fits were checked in the engine, not on a printed part: print one tile and one house first, and add a glue dot if you want them fixed.
  • Small parts: a decoration, not a toy for young children.
I printed this Remix

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