Unicorn Eggs — 85% Poop!

This is not a normal egg. It’s the sort of thing that will make people say, “Wow, what is that?”

 

To which you will respond, “What, you’ve never seen a unicorn egg before?”

And they’ll say, “Unicorns don’t lay eggs.”

 

And you’ll say, “Of course unicorns lay eggs. They have wings and they fly, don’t they?”

…

My best childhood Easter memories aren’t of the egg hunts, they are from the weekend before Easter, when we’d go to my aunt’s house to dye and decorate eggs.

 

Which is to say, this is a project that’s about the journey as much as it is about the destination.

 

Which is to say, this is a perfect project to choose if you’re doing some babysitting.

 

Which is also to say, this is a project that requires a bit of babysitting.

 

This is a fully enclosed egg, filled with filament poop, printed in spiral vase mode in one continuous line all the way from the bottom to the top. (A feat of engineering, really — it took me literal weeks to figure out how to get the top of the egg to seal up without collapsing. That spiral texture? It’s structural.)

 

I’m therefore asking you to put the poop in the egg without pausing the print. Sure, you could pause it. But it puts a scar in the otherwise unblemished structure and, more importantly, it’s not nearly as much fun. 

 

I’m also asking you to read the instructions. I don’t particularly care if you follow them, so long as you’re having a good time.

EDIT #1: If the process feels stressful and you want to pause your machine, please do that! It's totally fine and it's not up to me to say what will make this a fun project for you. Thanks to your feedback, there four official print profiles: The original, smaller egg (about as big as a Cadbury Creme Egg) — with and without a programmed pause — and the larger egg (about as big as a real chicken egg) — with and without a programmed pause.

EDIT #2: At least one cat gives this a 10 out of 10 in the fun-for-cats category. Thanks, cat!

 

You will need

• Clear or translucent filament (~1 gram per original egg / ~3 per bigger egg — I used clear PLA from Elegoo)
• Poop (~ 5-7 grams per small egg, a lot more per bigger egg)
• A poop trimming tool, such as nail clippers or small scissors
• Tweezers and/or some kind of poop poking implement, such as a chopstick
• A clean build plate. Seriously go wash it with some dish soap and warm water. I’m looking at you. Yes, you

 

The first and most important step

Hit like, collect, download or boost. Right now. This is the only mandatory step. I’m dead serious. 

Sure, good times were had putting together this project — and it was also an enormous amount of work. If you do not feed me with the dopamine hits of regular engagement and associated MakerWorld points, I will surely wither and die. And, more relevant to your own self-interest, I will quickly lose interest in sharing my weird ideas with the world and will go back to designing stuff for just me and my irl friends and family to enjoy. If you've made it this far, I have to assume you're at least a little bit interested in my weird projects.

 

Do it. Now. (Please and thank you!)

 

Boost MeThanks a million for your support!

Print a test egg

Ideally, you’re going to want to know what’s involved in this project before you ask a bunch of kiddos to a unicorn egg party. If you end up having so much fun that you keep making eggs till you’re out of poop (like I did), you can always destroy the eggs (fun!) to recover the poop and start over.

 

Once you load your filament and hit print, you have about 12 minutes [24 for bigger egg] until you need to be ready to start filling the egg with poop. Set a timer if you have ADHD like I do. (Because I have ADHD, I never actually followed my own advice on this, but luckily I was engaged enough in the process that I never missed the window of poopportunity.)

 

Get your poop in a group

The best poop for this project is small and compact. Trim any flyaway strands as best you can — they can cause problems! Organize a small pile that looks pretty together and then change your mind and pick a totally different color scheme.
 

Ready, set, poop!

It’s best to start loading the egg with poop at around layer 100 [or 170 for bigger egg]. I recommend slowing the printer to 50% (silent mode), unless you prefer to live dangerously (or until you’re so comfortable with the process that it no longer feels exciting). [This is way, way easier with the bigger egg so maybe give it a try before grabbing the print profile with a pause!]

 

Loading poop early will lead to the fan blowing it around, and possibly back out of, the egg — which is actually pretty fun so maybe try that at least once.

 

Loading too much poop, too quickly, will up the risk of getting in the way of the extruder, which could lead to hilarious and potentially egg-destroying consequences (see next section). 

You can use tweezers to load the poop if that helps, though I found I had the most control with plain-old fingers.

 

You can poke the poop with a finger or tool to help it settle and make room for more. It’s helpful to start loading the largest poops first and save some little ones to fill the gaps on top. You have lots of time! Remember to breathe, and don’t feel like you need to get a poop in on every go-round.

(If you end up doing this with kids and they’re too young to load the poop, have them select the poops and hand them to you. Or whatever keeps them engaged, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. It’s not hard to engage kids with a project called “unicorn eggs filled with poop.”)
 

Don’t be scared to crack some eggs

Back at my aunt’s house, every year one of us kids would break an egg. And it would be the most beautiful egg, the one we spent the most time and care on. And we would cry, and then we’d move on to the next egg. Hashtag life lessons.

 

There are a few ways this project can go awry. In my experience, the most common is that a stray filament strand (that wasn’t sufficiently trimmed) ends up on the rim of the egg. Then the nozzle comes by and starts sweeping it around in circles. 

Sometimes the nozzle will melt through the filament and continue on its way, with no harm done except that now there’s a strand of filament poking out from the inside of the egg. (You can later twist to break it off, or keep it if you’re into happy accidents.) See it? 

Or, the caught-up filament will get even more caught-up, pulling the egg off the build plate, resulting in what they call in the biz a “failed print.” But of course you know that this isn’t a failure, but a mishap and a lesson along the journey that only brings our ragtag bunch of heroes closer. (The kids won’t even cry — they’ll squeal with delight before gathering up the scattered poop for the next round.) 

 

 

 

Another way I’ve messed this up is by immediately pulling the egg off the hot build plate when it finished, very nearly ripping the bottom off. Actually, the egg was fine, save for a pinprick hole. The base also bubbled out, making it even more egg-shaped, which I counted as a win. Still, after that I pulled the build plate off the heat bed and let it cool for at least 30 seconds (10 if I'm being honest) before gently removing the egg. Hashtag life lessons. 

Another way I’ve messed this up is by putting the flame of a lighter too close to a finished egg. You’re probably too smart to do this but I’ll tell you anyways because it’s brave to be vulnerable. I was trying to get rid of the little nub at the top of the egg from where the nozzle pulls away. I thought I could use the hot metal from the lighter, which wasn’t the worst idea until I thought I could heat up the metal and have it touching the egg at the same time. The egg was actually fine except a little dent at the top (spot it in the photos!), but my ego is still a little bruised. And I eventually learned that the right way to deal with the nub is to rub it gently with the back of a fingernail until it retracts into the egg. Hashtag life lessons.

Did you hit like, collect, download or boost?

You didn’t? Please do it now. If you can spend 5+ minutes reading this and can’t spare two seconds to press one button, I’m not sure we can be friends. 

 

Boost MeThank you! Boosts Make-her World go 'round! 

You did? I love you. Thank you.

Now go forth and make a unicorn egg! What's the worst that could happen? You use 1 gram [or 3 grams] of filament and have slightly less fun than promised? 

 

Please share your pics, thoughts, suggestions and big ideas to make the world a better place in the comments. Online community will never beat real-world community, but it sure beats the heck out of nothing. Thanks for being here!