Wood Dragon 3D-Puzzle Gift Kit Card

• 3 Kit Cards to print and gift to someone
• 148 Pieces, each optimized for FDM printers from the wood cut original
• Step by step assembly instructions available further down on this page 
• 310mm x 180mm size of the finished model
• Friction-fit parts require no glue and can be easily disassembled.
   

Time estimates

• Each Kit Card takes approximately 2 hours to print.
• Removing the parts from the Kit Cards using pliers takes ~20 minutes
• Assembly following step-by-step instructions within ~30 minutes
• Free unguided assembly ~60 minutes
   

Easy to achieve color swap effect due to ordering of the parts. 

• All surface parts are printed facing the print bed. First printed color and your bed texture will always be the outer surface of the model
   

 Non-Kit-Card Version available (only-parts-v2 named files)

• Print for yourself without need for pliers rework, minimized filament use and print time (Note that the Kit-Cards can act as a print help if you face problems with the sharp corners. Since those act as mouse ears and hold the edges down on the print bed

Creative festive decoration:

• In the year 2024, known as the year of the wood dragon, it is believed that this celestial creature holds the power to nurture growth, encourage progress, and bring about abundance. Let this dragon serve as a decorative symbol, embodying these wishes for prosperity and advancement.

Entertainment and Relaxation:

• Provide a source of entertainment and relaxation, offering a break from hustle.
• Focusing on a puzzle can help to unwind and alleviate stress.

Family Bonding & Screen-Free Time:

• Enjoy as a group activity, making it an excellent choice for bringing family and friends together.
• In a world dominated by screens, puzzles offer a welcome break from digital devices, encouraging individuals to spend quality time away from screens.

Educational Value & Sensory Stimulation:

• Involves handling pieces, visually scanning for matches, and listening for the satisfying "click" of pieces coming together, providing a multi-sensory experience.
• Engages the brain and promotes cognitive skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and spatial awareness.
• Requires concentration and mindfulness, promoting a state of focus and presence in the moment.

Assembly instructions
 

First and foremost, it is possible to assemble the 148 parts without any detailed instructions and it might even add a challenging fun feature. 
Rufus, the son of a college build the very difficult to friction fit early prototype and glued the pieces into place. Without needing any kind of instructions.
He even did a video while figuring out how to build the final sample model
 

Be advised, following detailed instructions might spoil your fun.


For the non kit card (only-parts-v2 files) version

I would advise to print in order C, B, A. That makes it possible to first assemble the head in full, then add most part of the body and end with adding the legs. Just so you can start some building already during waiting on the rest of the print jobs without missing parts.


When having all 3 Kit Cards printed

1. First start to free the parts from the card connectors with some pointy pliers. 

Easiest way to do that is to concentrate on the large pieces first. Hold the pliers safely and turn the card (and to release part) around the pliers. Instead of moving the pliers to each individual part. Holding the pliers in the same position but rotating the card helps with work safety and precision. 

2. Keep the pieces neatly sorted like they came on the cards. 
The pieces are not named or numbered. 
The cards are pre-sorted to help identify pieces that connect together.

We are going to assemble the rear part with legs and tail first.

3. Join the inner and outer leg parts using the wing connectors from kit-card/set B (in center of the above picture) like shown in the next two pictures.
If you printed in two colors its easy to notice that the print bed facing side is supposed to be the outer surface of the dragon.
(Note, there is an error still in the pictures that has been fixed in the .stl file. Namely the left hind leg on next picture is supposed to be white like the other three are, but was wrongly oriented in the version printed for these instructions)




4. Connect the tiny scales from card A to the two tail decorations



5. Connect the hind legs and the tail parts to the back/tail connector plate you found on kit-card A

6. Moving to kit-card B, assemble the roundish scales to the outer back and neck parts.
Mind that also these scales are mirrored for consistent orientation of the forward facing color.
But it might be interesting to play with some variation here.

7. Add flat scales to the core back and neck parts and join them using the connector plate from kit-card C

8. Mount the outer back and neck parts from previous steps to the connector plate.
Mind that the scales might sit a tad loose here and there still and might pop out in the most inconvenient moment. Try not to curse in front of children.

9. Let us now join the previously assembled fore legs to the same connector plate

10. Adding the hind legs and tail section we completed earlier now should make our wood dragon stand on its own for the first time <3

11. We might as well add the wings now

And then move to the most complex part in this build, the head.

12. Make sure the 3 inner head parts align to the eyes.

This will likely move out of place again during next steps but now you know what to look for when adding the eyes back when they fell off :P

13. Connect the head base plate and add the outer head antler parts.

14. Now we add the lower head plate.
Mind that the head antler parts do sit flush to the sides of this part and leave room for the cheeks to connect to the outer slots

15. Put cheeks and the horns in place

16. And finally connect the head to the neck and the claws to the feet to finish off our beautiful wood dragon

Still no Gummi bears here. But yaay, you made it!

Please share your awesome color idea makes. 
That would be so cool to see.

Thank you, enjoy the process, and here's to a fantastic 2024!

Print advise:

1. Due to very sharp corners, print the first layer slowly. On MK4 i got safe results at 25mm/s with all PLAs i tried. Ender 2 Pro with 0.6mm Nozzle needed 15mm/s until all edges stuck safely.
    
2. Small printers with bed size lower than 20cm can print a smaller version of the only-parts files by setting the z-height of the cards from regulary 1.4mm to 1.2mm in their slicer. Crucial is to let the x and y width follow proportionally (Most slicers do that automatically, just do not switch off proportional resize). That way the x and y sizes scale below 165mm and will be printable on almost any smaller printer.
   The resulting dragon is less than 10% smaller, but very much harder to assemble. I needed tweezers for some parts. And resorted to quick glue for the scales. Elephant footing has much more impact on the fit of the joints at this lower scale.

If you want to support me, please check my other models!

I do very niche projects mostly. Thus, understandably, only few of my models become popular.
But chances are high that you can find inspiration from my specialized works.
https://www.printables.com/@moWerk/models

Thank you and happy printing!