Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree: The iconic tufty, short, and crooked pine tree bedecked with one shiny Christmas ornament that Linus rejuvenates by fashioning his support blanket as a tree skirt to cover the modest crisscross board stand.  The tree slips into the base to allow for blanket changes.  The assembled model is ~ 200mm tall.

12/14/2024 Update: Several folks have mentioned that the built-in supports in the pine boughs are not sturdy enough to survive printing.  I've uploaded both boughs with no support, which will allow you to generate your own support (20 - 30 mm tall) that will hopefully survive the print.  In addition, it is best to print out multiple boughs at one time to give the print a rest. 

Print Instructions
Resolution: 0.2 mm unless noted.
10% fill (grid) unless noted.

Brown: PolyTerra PLA Earth Brown
Tree Trunk
Branches 4 - 6: Brim; printed at the same time.
Branch 7: Raft; Support: Grid 15% 85°
Branch Tips: 100% fill; Raft; it helps to widen the female portion of the caps with a needlenose plier or other round object when the print is still warm
Board Grain: 100% fill
Board Caps: 100% fill

Note: The branch tips print out better if you print out all four at once.

Green: eSUN PLA+ Peak Green
Pine Boughs small and large: No support or skirt (built-in breakable supports).

Notes: (1) I am using the "drooloops" method that require post-printing "pruning" (see below) in order for the boughs to look like pine needles.  (2) The branch connectors at the top come out better if you print out more than one bough. (3) 12/7/2024 Update: Slice with Cura; print 100% fill (lines) and print at 50% your printer's normal speed.

Wood boards: PARAMOUNT 3D Universal Beige PLA
Base and Top Boards

Blues: NovaMaker Sky Blue PLA and Enotepad Twinkling Blue PLA
Blanket: 10% gyroid fill

Red: ZiRO PLA Silky Red
Bauble: 0.15 mm; concentric top and bottom; 100% fill concentric; Raft 5 mm; concentric support 50° 15% touching the buildplate; support blocker to prevent internal support

Bauble with built in support: 0.15 mm; concentric top and bottom; 100% fill concentric.

"Gold": Hatchbox PLA Rust (I didn't have any gold PLA)
Bauble cap: 100% fill

Any PLA:
Stump peg (to connect tree to base)
 

Assembly

Tree stand: The baseboards for the two boards snugly-fit into their respective baseboad grains.  You may have to shave down any imperfections in the prints to get the baseboards to fit perfectly.  I intentionally left some imperfections in the boards to give the base some character. I did not use any glue.  The boardcaps are glued on top.  You will need to print out two of the half boardcaps for the lower board.  Glue the two boards together using the stump peg to align the holes in the two boards.  Be careful not to glue the stump peg as well if you want to change blankets.  Don't worry about any the gaps on the bottom baseboard, they will be covered up by the blanket.

Tree: Glue the stump peg into tree trunk; the four branch tips onto the four small pine boughs and the four large pine boughs into the ends of branches 4 - 7.  I left the breakable supports on (see picture below) as stands for gluing.  After the glue dries on the branches, remove the breakable supports from the pine boughs.  Be careful not to break the branch connectors off of the small boughs. Finish branch 7 by gluing one small pine bough (see diagram above for branch positions) to the open position. Prune and remove the pine bough loops to your liking with a pair of scissors.  For the large boughs that have two rings of needles, I found it easier to splay the lower ring of pine needles perpendicular to the stem and bunch the upper ring parallel to the stem away from the lower ring. Once pruned (and fluffed) to your liking, glue the seven branches to the tree trunk.

Ornament: I found my built in support resulted in less imperfections at the top of the ornament.  There were still some imperfections that I sanded somewhat smooth with 400 grit sandpaper to reduce the amount of "epoxy" needed to coat the ornament. Glue the cap and ring onto the bauble. I fashioned the bauble ring out of a paperclip.  To get the high gloss finish, I tried to evenly slather on a thick coating of Gorilla Glue Clear (aka easy epoxy).

Blanket: The base of the tree slips through the blanket hole at the top.  I did not glue the blanket or the tree to the base, which allows the blanket to be repositioned and changed.