Butterfly Hair Clip
Wim VJanuary 2, 2023
Description
A question came my way, whether there were also nice things to wear in the hair that could be 3D printed? The person in question does not make a bun in the hair and does not wear hair bands or hair combs. Logically, a hair clip remained. While searching, I soon found out that there were only a few nice hair clips to be found, all not quite what I was looking for. A new challenge to come up with something fun and challenging had begun.
The idea was soon taken to do something with butterflies, partly because they are always popular. I wanted to make a solid hair clip with a butterfly on top. I soon found out that designing a good clip was not so easy. Numerous failed versions were made until finally the attached model remained.
Making it from 1 piece was not an option, so that ultimately 2 main parts remained: the butterfly as a separate part and the clip, consisting of 2 parts that are clicked together. I chose not to glue the clip (didn't seem sturdy enough for the function), but instead fused the parts together by adding filament and using a "solder" iron.
The butterfly was a bit dull as a flat print and wouldn't fall into the hair very nicely either. That's why I decided to bend them. A mold was printed for this so that this bending could always be done in the right way.
You bend the butterfly by submerging the butterfly briefly in a tray with boiled water (not boiling anymore!), pick up with pliers or tweezers, place the butterfly well centered on the mold and then pressing it firmly. It then cools down very quickly after which it does retain its shape. (note that you keep the center fairly flat, then it is easier to attach the clip!) Works only for PLA! Please be aware that the water needs to be about 100°C. If it cools down to ±80-85°C it will not work anymore..
For printing the butterfly I quickly made the choice to use 2 colors. A base color for the strength of the print and an accent color. For a special effect I added a 3rd layer (glow in the dark filament). Because I only have 1 extruder, I used the filament change function in Prusa (M600) for this. In this way it is possible to change color during a layer change. The structure of the layers in the model has been taken into account. Layer 1-9 are white, layer 10&11 are glow in the dark filament and layer 12&13 is magic filament (green/blue). You are of course free to choose other colours. p.s. layer height should be 0.2mm and nozzle size 0.4mm (or 0.2mm), the model is optimized for this!
Because the shape of the butterfly looked so nice with the bending, I also added a hanging eye, so that the butterfly can also be worn on a necklace or as earrings (in different sizes).
