Butterfly/Balisong Collection-Print in Place!

These are a great example of "Print-In-Place" 3D printing, there is no assembly and these utensils are ready to use right from the print bed. Previously I had made the Tanto and the Trainer blades, but knew in the back of my head that there was something missing.

So, here they are all in one place now, an extension to the print in place Balisong collection, the Fork n Spoon! (now with serrated blade too!)

All of the one's I've printed have been from PLA material, but I am curious how TPU would work for these so if anyone prints using TPU please let me know how it goes.

There are .3mf files and .stl files of each type of knife, choose whichever you generally use.

Orientation:
Please pay attention to the printing orientation on these, the part should be standing up on the hinge end and not laying down. It will not print well laying on its side, it was designed to be standing up. There is a photo in the package that shows all the parts standing up on the build plate in the proper orientation for reference.

Infill Type / Infill Percent:
Any infill type or % will do. I have heard of the knives being printed with 0% infill but have not tried it myself. All my prints have been from 5% to 100% infill and work just fine. I like to print functional models like this one with thicker walls for durability, usually 2-3mm.

Supports:
No supports are needed for any of these.
If you'd like to print with a brim for increased build plate adhesion it will still work, but the brim will need to be removed fully to keep the handles slinging cleanly.
I prefer to use glue stick on my build plate for increased adhesion and a skirt to purge the nozzle initially while it verifies build plate leveling. If you have a bed slinger with high accelerations, this thing gets tall with a narrow base so… glue stick…

These are honestly pretty simple to do prints, click go, then ~6hours later there's a functional butterfly tool ready to use!

If you'd like more info on these check out the video below. In the video I go through the creation and printing of these and you get to see all the issues I encountered and worked through in the process:

I hope you enjoy! Thanks for checking it out! If you like things like this be sure to check out the many other models I have here.

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I've posted these to Thingiverse and Printables first and noticed that there was high demand for them to be on Makerworld, so I made an account and here they finally are…

Ever since the original butterfly knife I modeled I've been including other versions, such as the Spork, Fork, and Serrated Blade. The serrated blade is my FAVORITE! I've printed many, and should include some photos of it in the future. It is a little tricky to separate the blade from the last handle half, but possible I assure you.

Here's the original video posted to YouTube with these knives, if you're interested in checking it out:

Thank You for your support!