Butterfly Fridge Magnet

Intro

I was inspired to design this model to capture the beauty and elegance of butterflies through an accessible medium - 3D printing. I wanted the model to be detailed yet not too busy, with an accent of color to stand out on the metallic fridge surface. The result was this butterfly magnet, which is easy to print, has considerable detail at any layer height / quality setting, and was optimized to print quickly.

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Printing

This model does not require any supports and can be printed on any Bambu Labs printer. There is a pre-painted print profile included so you can easily print this multicolor design in just a few clicks. After printing, you must insert 5mm x 3mm magnets into the 3 slots on the back - these magnets are purchasable from the Maker's Supply and are readily available on Amazon. The magnet slot clearance is tuned so that they should stay in place without the need for glue - though you can use a drop in each slot to ensure a longer lasting hold.

Variations

For those without an AMS, I included a butterfly-layer-change file. This file can be printed on any single-color printer by swapping the filament color (reference this guide for color swaps in Cura). Start the print with orange, swap to white at 4mm / layer 20, and then swap to black at 4.4mm / layer 22.

 

There is also a butterfly-nomagnet file and a butterfly-layer-change-nomagnet file that don't have the magnet slots for those who want to hang the butterfly in alternate ways or use it as a coaster.