3D-Printed Birdhouse, A Sign

Note: there is now an improved 3rd version of this thing at: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:117929

This rather large birdhouse is the entry/donation from my daughter and me to the 12th annual Birdhouse Display and Benefit Auction at The Arboretum in Lexington, KY. My daughter had the idea of making it look like a road sign with pictographs for bird and house -- with the entrance in the house pictograph. We call it "A Sign." And it is a sign in another way too -- it is a sign that 3D printing has come of age, because this birdhouse is 100% 3D-printed.

The design is original, but the cartoon-like bird shape was inspired by thing 47032.

The sign on "A Sign" in the Arboretum just says "A Sign" -- it doesn't say anything about being 3D printed. So, I've just added a 3D-printed QR code pointing at the Instructable....

Instructions

See: http://www.instructables.com/id/3D-Printed-Birdhouse-A-Sign/

This entire birdhouse was 3D printed in PLA using the MakerGear M2 in my lab (Aggregate.Org) at the University of Kentucky. Aside from being huge, it's an easy print (in several pieces) and should be done using very low fill factors to save on material... mostly between 5% and 10%. The birdhouse was painted, rather than printed in multiple colors, because we felt the paint would afford better protection against the weather.

The customizer allows selection of each of the parts and adjustment of some key parameters. There is something different/wrong with the customizer's handling of a couple of the parts... so I'll be tweaking the .scad file, but the .stl part files are all good.

Category: Outdoor & Garden