December 10, 2025
Description
Build your own multi-coloured Christmas baubles! No MMU required. Just print each section in your choice of colours, patterns and designs, and gently push them together. No glue required.
Biggest challenge of printing spherical Christmas baubles like these is always that the overhangs never come out perfect. Either you are stuck with support rash, or you often have the bottom side pointing away from your parts fan getting droopy.
I designed these primarily to make it easy, quick and simple print both top and bottom with perfect surface quality, but the modular design made for a fun opportunity to add customisation of each bauble.
Each bauble is made up of a “top”, “bottom” and "middle" section, each of which comes in a variety of patterns and options:
Blank smooth sphere
Snowflake pattern embossed
Candycane pattern embossed
Wrapped gift pattern embossed
Name/text box where you can write/engrave whatever(first Christmas as a couple? Write your name on each side and symbolically join them together. Or commemorate a Christmas by writing the year on it).
Blank middle section that is flush with the top and bottom
Ribbon raised slightly above the surface of the top and bottom
Bow on ribbon
Heart on ribbon
Two hearts on ribbon
Zig-zag pattern on ribbon
For each bauble you will also need to print a “Cap”, "Hanger" and 2x “Pin”, which can be found in the misc folder.
Celestial themed pack:
I have included .step files for the three main sections so you can add your own patterns and details. Please add them as remixes! I would love to see a growing community collection of options and patterns! Especially from any of you who are more artistically capable than I am. I can imagine landscapes, nativity scenes and much more embossed onto the baubles, but I lack the artistic skills and tools to create them.
These baubles are specifically designed to make printing as easy as possible, so you don't need any special settings. But here are the settings I have used:
Layer height: 0.15.
Perimeters: 3 (with 0.4mm nozzle).
Infill: 15%.
Brim: No, all parts have built-in brims. Just orientate them accordingly on the build plate.
Support: None, all parts are designed to be printed flat on print bed and support themselves(Prusaslicer might complain about "collapsing overhang" and “Loose extrusion”, but you can ignore both).
Complete individual objects: All parts are short enough that the gantry etc. of most printers should be able to clear them(At least they do on the Core One). So you can fill the bed ~4 pieces with this option on without risking stringing etc.
Scaling: The default size of the baubles are 50mm in diameter. I have not tried it, but they should scale as long as you scale all components identically. Though if you scale it down too much, the small details might no longer work properly.
Start by cutting off the small flat square “brim” sections of the pins. A sidecutter works well, but a knife or simply breaking them off is also fine.
If top surface layer of the pins are a bit rough, scrape/sand them down a little to be smooth so they fit through the middle section better.
Look at the two rectangular holes in the middle section: The pins will only fit through if orientated properly.
With that orientation in mind, gently push both pins into the holes on a top or bottom. The pins should fit snuggly, but still go in without too much effort. I could push mine in with just a couple fingers. If they are too tight, try and print a set of pins again but scale them down 1-2%.
Push the middle section down over both the inserted pins.
Carefully align the other half of the sphere with both the pins and gently push it on.
Once you confirm it is properly on both pins, firmly push the parts together until there is no gap between them.
Put the cap onto the top part, and push the hanger through until it clicks into place. The hanger should stay in all by itself, while allowing it to rotate. But they will come back out if the bauble get pulled on. If you have small children or pets in the house, you might want to put the hanger in with a couple drops of glue!
Again, I would absolutely love to see the community come up with more, and better, designs for the baubles. Emboss some cool new designs onto the spheres. Add different decorations, logos, characters etc. to the middle section.
For that reason, I have added .step files for the three blank main sections for you to play around with. Please add your creations as remixes and link back to this page so people can mix and match.
License:
Creative Commons — Attribution — Noncommercial — Share Alike
9
rhn
