Covid-19 has put millions of people around the world in various forms of social distancing. While this has meant not being able to see loved ones or take time for all our hobbies, for many of our readers it’s given them a chance to print some really cool models.
We called on you, our readers, to send in your best prints made while social distancing and these are some of our favorites of those submitted. Needless to say, we’ve been completely blown away by your ingenuity and creativity. We received all kinds of submissions, from life-size models to functional parts, but you may be wondering why there are no facemasks or PPE here and – while we applaud everything done to help the cause – since there are so many of you who are printing these types of items we’ve left them out.
If you haven’t participated yet, but would like to, there’s still time! Send us photos of what you’re most proud of printing during the pandemic to stayathome@all3dp.com and our editors will pick the ones we like best and share them on our site and our newsletter.
So, without further ado, here are our favorite entries thus far, organized in no particular order.
Torben Abrahamsen - Crown
Creator: Torben Abrahamsen
Country: Esbjerg, Denmark
Printer: Anet A8 with a Hemera extruder
Material: Filamentum ExtraFill: Gold Happens for the crown and a mix of Crystal Clear and Purple Red, Turquoise Green, and Vertigo Starlight for the gems
What I’ve printed: A crown
A little bit about it: “The crown itself took nine hours without support. And the gems were an experiment of mixing color PLA with clear PLA. I made this crown for my 5-year-old princess to play with. This is my biggest print to date.”
Eric Thorsen - Life-size Grandfather and Grandson
Creator: Eric Thorsen
Country: Montana, USA
Printer: Creality CR-10 S4
Material: PLA
What I’ve printed: Life-size grandfather and grandson
A little bit about it: “This is a life-size grandfather I printed during the shelter-in-place. I sculpted the entire piece using ZBrush. I had just finished printing the grandson that will sit with the elderly man just before the world turned upside down.”
Brett Halliday - Illuminated Clock
Creator: Brett Halliday
Country: UK
Printer: Anycubic Mega-S
Material: PLA
What I’ve printed: Illuminated clock
A little bit about it: “I first printed this before the lockdown (it is available on Thingiverse), but have now printed a whole lot more as gifts. They bring a spot of sunshine into the house. It was designed with OpenSCAD (for the bowl shape), and with Tinkercad (for everything else). The clock is battery powered, but there is a strip of LED lights which are mains powered via a transformer. The face was printed in white to let light through, and reflections of the LEDs are also visible through the gap between the clock face and the bowl. If you look carefully, you can see the concentric infill pattern around the numerals.”
Rishit R. - Puzzle
Creator: Rishit R.
Country: USA
Printer: XYZprinting da Vinci Jr. 1.0
Material: PLA
What I’ve printed: 4 x 4 cube puzzle
A little bit about it: “I designed an easy-to-make puzzle that anyone could print. All but one of the pieces can be 3D printed without supports, and there are multiple solutions to this puzzle so you won’t get bored. I know that many people are stuck at home and have a lot of free time on their hands. Everyone needs a way to entertain themselves from home, and this print is the perfect way to do this.”
Mark Huppertz - Vases
Creator: Mark Huppertz
Country: New Mexico, USA
Printer: Delta Wasp 2040
Material: PLA and PETG
What I’ve printed: Vases
A little bit about it: “I have an art degree but have worked in the computer field for a long time. My 3D prints are the result of the marriage of the two.”
Alex Madsen - Flexy-Hand
Creator: Alex Madsen
Country: Oregon, USA
Printer: Creality Ender 3
Material: PLA and TPU
What I’ve printed: Flexy-hand by Gyrobot
A little bit about it: “Very useless but fun.”
Yoav Balaban - Sushi Mat
Creator: Yoav Balaban
Country: Israel
Printer: Original Prusa i3 MK3S
Material: PLA
What I’ve printed: A fully functional sushi mat
A little bit about it: “It’s Friday evening, we shut off the TV after watching the latest news on the coronavirus and started preparing our homemade sushi when I suddenly realized we’re missing one major element! A sushi mat! Just before giving up our sushi plans, I had an idea to try printing a mat. Within an hour, a mat was modeled and printed! The sushi dinner was saved.”
Ray C. Freeman III - Artwork
Creator: Ray C. Freeman III
Country: Seattle, USA
Printer: Creality Ender 3
Material: PLA
What I’ve printed: 3D printed artwork designed in Blender
A little bit about it: “I decided to take some of the extra time I’ve got on my hands during this pandemic and learn Blender. I started this series of panels by accident just trying things out as I worked along with the tutorials in my Blender lessons. I thought that I might as well learn the modeling to printing workflow, as well, so the first couple of these were born. As an architect, I started to get interested in how some of them appeared to be tiny landscapes, so I started playing around with scale, and end up with nine panels that run the gamut from territorial to full-sized. The Lego panel was the very last. I wondered what would happen if the studs on a Lego baseplate started to get loose.”
Wes Matchett - Glasses
Creator: Wes Matchett
Country: United States
Printer: Lulzbot Taz 6
Material: PLA
What I’ve printed: Replacement glasses
A little bit about it: “I’m submitting them because this is the most complex/difficult thing I’ve ever modeled and it met a need during the current difficulties. A colleague’s son broke his glasses and could not get an appointment at the optometrist because they are closed. So I modeled them in Fusion 360 and printed them in his favorite colors in PLA. The arms are fixed since I have no way to make hinges, they are glued on with CA glue. I molded them into final form using a heat gun. These are just for temporary use until more durable glasses are available. I printed three models to tune the design before the final print.”
Alberto Trejos - St. Basil's Cathedral
Creator: Alberto Trejos
Country: Costa Rica
Printer: Maker Gear M2
Material: PLA and acrylic paint
What I’ve printed: A true 1:100m scale replica of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square made up of 70 parts.
A little bit about it: It took about 700 hours in total to model it, slice, assemble and paint the parts. “I’m an architect and I use my 3D printer to build models from my designs and others who contract me. I submitted it because I have my workshop at home in my backyard and wanted to do one of my favorite architectural icons. I want to do others, like Taj Mahal, Hagia Sofía, Notre Dame … if I have time enough to do so.”
Richard Perry - Milk Float Slot Car
Creator: Richard Perry
Country: Wales, UK
Printer: Creality Ender 3
Material: PLA
What I’ve printed: A milk float slot car in 1:32 scale
A little bit about it: “I have printed everything you see except the fixing screws, wheels, tires, axles, gears, and motor. The guide (the black component that keeps it in the slot) is SLS nylon commercially printed to my design – PLA isn’t strong enough. Everything white and red was printed by me from my designs using FreeCad and Cura and my Ender 3. It is based loosely on a 1970s UK milk float. I have yet to paint it (in a Unigate Livery probably). It runs on a standard Scalextric track and I will be making 4 of them to race using the Digital Scalextric track at my club once we are out of lockdown.”
Colin Hughes - Nimbus 2001 Broomstick
Creator: Colin Hughes
Country: England, UK
Printer: Creality CR-10S
Material: eSun PLA+
What I’ve printed: Draco Malfoy’s Nimbus 2001 racing broomstick from the Harry Potter series
A little bit about it: “My 19-year-old daughter is an avid Harry Potter fan – well actually she’s a Slytherin and loves Draco Malfoy, NOT Harry. While in lockdown she asked if I would make her Draco’s Nimbus 2001 Quidditch racing broom. I modeled it in Fusion 360 and split it into printable parts without the need for supports.
“It has working (rotating) stirrups and a removable handle for easy transport. Printing parts took a full week on my CR-10S using eSun PLA+ in black. Larger parts were printed at 0.32 mm layer height and 0% infill for speed, smaller parts printed at 0.2 mm layer height with 15% infill. It’s just over two reels of filament weighing in at 2.2 kg.
“The parts needed a lot of sanding and gluing, and it looks great. The photos are from the beginning of this week and since then I’ve painted the handle and the stirrups. I’m planning to finish it in the next week or so. The model is up for sale on Pinshape and Cults with instructions if others would like to make it.”
Rich Clarke - Jukebox
Creator: Rich Clarke
Country: Michigan, USA
Printer: Creality CR-10S
Material: Amolen Frosted Brass, Overture PETG Black, Makergeeks PETG Clear, AmazonBasics PLA Black, Stronghero3D Brass, paint
What I’ve printed: Desktop Jukebox
A little bit about it: “I designed and printed a small desktop Jukebox. It has a 7” touch screen, Raspberry Pi 3B, a small Amp board, and neopixels run from an Adafruit circuit playground express. The speakers were made to look like a drive-in, as my wife works at one of the few remaining in Michigan. The main element is Art Deco meets Steampunk. I did it because I wanted to stretch my skills, learn a few new things, and have fun. It was just a fun project that used parts I had laying around.”
Richard Ziewiec - Adjustable Projector Bracket
Creator: Richard Ziewiec
Country: Tasmania, Australia
Printer: DIY Hypercube Evolution
Material: eSun PLA, aluminum tube, and angle
What I’ve printed: Adjustable projector bracket
A little bit about it: “Many items I print I design my own for personal needs, I either start from scratch or modify existing prints easily available online. This particular set of prints was required to hang a cheap projector that had no form of distance from wall adjustment. This print allows you to slide the projector back and forth to fit the projection on the screen perfectly. I used Microsoft 3D builder to design these items. Thought I would share this just to show we don’t need to buy commercial products such as a projector hanger bracket when you have a 3d printer and a little time on your hands.”
Brendan Slazinski - Damaged Storm Trooper Helmet
Creator: Brendan Slazinski
Country: USA
Printer: Creality Ender 3
Material: AmazonBasics PLA
What I’ve printed: Damaged Storm Trooper helmet by Paul Braddock on MyMiniFactory
A little bit about it: “I’m submitting this as I think it is one of my best prints to date.”
Marcin Kudzia - Fully Functional Cockpit
Creator: Marcin Kudzia
Country: UK
Printer: Original Prusa i3 MK3S with a Mosquito hot end and a Bondtech extruder
Material: Extrudr PLA NX2, Prusament ASA
What I’ve printed: 1:7 scale fully functional Bell 206 cockpit with working controls for a 1.7 m RC helicopter
A little bit about it: “The chairs and floor section were printed with a 0.4 mm nozzle with 0.15 mm layer height. This gave it a level of detail comparable to SLA but half the weight and higher strength/temp resistance.”
Roman Kogan - Torus Knot
Creator: Roman Kogan
Country: USA
Printer:Printrbot Simple Metal
Material: Hatchbox PLA, steel ball bearings (manually inserted during printing)
What I’ve printed: A torus knot, also known as T(3,5), or, more specifically, a mesh wrapped around a cylinder with several steel balls rolling feeling inside it.
A little bit about it: “The knot itself lies on the surface of a torus, and as the balls roll within, they revolve five times around one of the axes of the torus, and three around the other to traverse the knot completely.” Submitted it “to share the beauty and the art of mathematics with everyone.”
Matt Hoyt - German Carousel Replica
Creator: Matt Hoyt
Country: New York, USA
Printer: Original Prusa i3 MK3S
Material: ASA, PLA+, and “a few bits of purchased hardware”
What I’ve printed: Candleholder carousel
A little bit about it: “It was a fun project to make and replicates the working of a wooden German carousel that I bought last year for a Christmas decoration. I enjoyed watching it run, so I wanted a theme I could have out all year. Of course, you need to be careful and not leave unattended, but I have updated the design to make it as safe as possible. Honestly, I think it is safer than the wooden one I have.”
Mark B. Heller - Fully Playable Guitar
Creator: Mark B. Heller
Country: Illinois, USA
Printer: Stacker S4
Material: Foxsmart PLA, Hatchbox PLA, guitar neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard and is a standard Fender-style neck
What I’ve printed: Fully playable guitar featuring a real Stratocaster compatible maple neck and three functioning pickups and locking tuners
A little bit about it: “I submit this to show what can be done with a simple 3D CAD program and a 3D printer by someone with no professional training. I created the model in Tinkercad (yes, Tinkercad).
The body was printed in two parts so the center block could be printed at 85% infill for strength. It’s a functioning electric guitar with locking tuners, adjustable fixed bridge, and a Stratocaster style pickguard. I gave it a honeycomb finish to hide the imperfections of 3D printing. I’m donating this guitar to a bar in Richmond, IL for them to auction it off to help raise money as they have been greatly impacted by a statewide quarantine.”
Ed Ringel - Tripod Webcam Mod
Creator: Ed Ringel
Country: Maine, USA
Printer: MendelMax 3 Dual Extrusion
Material: (at 238 °C, 0.25 mm layer height, support structures on and 40% infill), a 1/4-20 nut
What I’ve printed: “My wife … is a piano teacher, and had to stop teaching her students in person. She now uses Zoom or FaceTime, depending on the family. Using an iPad or a laptop did not work well because it was very difficult to show the students her hands and keyboard as she played. I had a webcam Logitech C270 from another project and thought if we could mount it on a camera tripod, it would be a great solution. Unfortunately, tripod heads don’t really work well for the clip-on type USB webcams from Logitech and other vendors. I designed a small print that screws to the camera mount on the tripod and allows the webcam to easily be attached and then aimed.”
A little bit about it: “I am the creator of the model. I used Sketchup Make 2017. I use Simplify 3D as my slicing and machine control software on an ancient Dell Windows 10 box. I think that this print, in its own way, shows two of the best things about 3D printing – if you can think it, you can make it. Additionally, a design can be tweaked without spending enormous time and money (you are seeing version three here.) This print is a small contribution to helping the students’ education continue during the pandemic.”
Mike Steen - Filament Guide Wheel
Creator: Mike Steen
Country: North Carolina, USA
Printer: Creality Ender 3
Material: PLA
What I’ve printed: Filament guide wheel for an Ender 3
A little bit about it: “The design was done by me on SolidWorks. I am very new to 3D printing but I saw a need on the Ender 3 to straighten out the tug on the filament at the hot end entrance. I designed the guide wheel for just that purpose. It all snaps together but I opted to glue the wheel spacer in and you need to glue the two wheel halves together. Use a mandrel in the hub to align and orient the spokes any way you wish.”
Cathy Tritschler - Sculpture
Creator: Cathy Tritschler
Country: France
Printer: Sovol SV01
Material: Verbatim PLA
What I’ve printed: A modelization based on a photo seen on the internet
A little bit about it: “I love this king of sculptures: simple forms with emotion. “I saw this picture on the internet, found it beautiful and decided to model it with Blender for 3D printing.”
Ilias Zournatzis - Harry Potter Elder Wand
Creator: Ilias Zournatzis
Country: Greece
Printer: Creality Ender 3
Material: PLA, paint to resemble wood texture
What I’ve printed: The Elder Wand from Harry Potter, designed by Jacob Reeves
A little bit about it: Printed this “because we had to do a Harry Potter marathon while staying at home.”
Joseph VonDohlen - Oni Mask
Creator: Joseph VonDohlen
Country: Okinawa, Japan
Printer: Epax X1
Material: Resin
What I’ve printed: Oni mask
A little bit about it: “I’ve printed some various models for no other reason than I thought they were amazing designs made by some really talented creators. I like printing things by artists I admire, and even though they aren’t functional, I’m happy to share their work and I’m proud to have them in my collection.”
Philip Buono - Time Machine
Creator: Philip Buono
Country: USA
Printer: Original Prusa i3 MK3S
Material: Hatchbox PLA
What I’ve printed: A model of the classic time machine from the 1960 movie of the same name
A little bit about it: “I am submitting this model because I have always been fascinated by the beautiful design of the original prop used in the movie. Working with blueprints downloaded from the internet gave me a greater appreciation of the design. I am very proud of the accuracy I was able to achieve.”
Annemarie Baldauf - Sculpture
Creator: Annemarie Baldauf
Country: USA
Printer: Makerbot Replicator +
Material: Silk rainbow metallic PLA
What I’ve printed: A self-designed sculpture called “Home Infected with Coronavirus”
A little bit about it: “I submitted this because I am an artist and I want people to see my artwork.”
Peter Wake - Building Redevelopment
Creator: Peter Wake
Country: Sydney, Australia
Printer: Formlabs Form 2, Ultimaker 3 Extended
Material: Clear Photopolymer Resin FLGPCL02, Black Photopolymer Resin FLGPBKO3, ColorFabb filament
What I’ve printed: 1:1,000 building redevelopment
A little bit about it: “The redevelopment of an existing heritage building which was printed with woodfill and had laser-cut maple veneer laminated to it to add further detail. There was a real clarity of the different elements of this model, with the surrounding buildings massed out on the Ultimaker in black, the more detailed surrounding site buildings massed on the Form 2 in clear and the trees in black resin.”
John Wilkes - Machine
Creator: John Wilkes
Country: Cape Town, South Africa
Printer: Creality Ender 3
Material: PLA
What I’ve printed: An automated machine designed to “score a series of tiny radial grooves on a little cylindrical plastic component.”
A little bit about it: “The components are 4 mm tall, and they sit on the visible brass pin, to provide you with a sense of scale. If you look closely, you’ll notice a set of three razor blades bolted together – these leave the grooves on the plastic. A tiny copper coil gets wound around the plastic, and these grooves prevent it from slipping off under a shock load.”
Jack Swallow - Polar Bear
Creator: Jack Swallow
Country: Missouri, USA
Printer: Creality Ender 3 Pro
Material: Solutech PLA
What I’ve printed: Polar Bear with Seal by Amao Chan
A little bit about it: “As you can see in the photo there are two models. The small one on the right is the original files printed as they were downloaded. The big boy on the left was accomplished by doubling the x, y, and z parameters.”
Isak Hendrikse - Bluetooth Amplifier Board Enclosure
Creator: Isak Hendrikse
Country: South Africa
Printer: Homemade P3Steel
Material: Verbatim ABS, RoHS PETG
What I’ve printed: Bluetooth amplifier board enclosure
A little bit about it: “I needed some enclosures for some of my Bluetooth amplifier boards and could not find it for two of the boards on the internet, so I designed it in Fusion 360 and printed them. Just wanted to share with others and motivate people to stay occupied during their knockdowns. I can perform my work from home, so to get a bit of time for myself, I took four days leave to play with my electronics and 3D printer.”
Carol McCullough-Dieter
Creator: Carol McCullough-Dieter
Country: Wisconsin, USA
Printer: Creality Ender 3 Pro
Material: PLA
What I’ve printed: Toy poodle skull
A little bit about it: “Buddy is a very special dog: he is the service dog for my husband. Buddy got a necrotic, bone-eating infection that surely would have killed him without the expert help from the dental surgeons at UW-Madison Veterinary Hospital.
“The vets took a CAT scan of Buddy’s skull when preparing for surgery, and I was fascinated with the 3D image they showed us at the vet hospital. I asked for a copy of the scan. I found an article on Instructibles.com that guided me step-by-step through the process of transforming the scan into a printable model.
“I used some free online software to transform the CAT Scan into a 3D model, rendered it in MeshMixer sliced it with Simplify3D, and printed it on my Ender 3 Pro with PLA. I created this because I have always been curious about skulls, and with Covid-19, I had a little extra time at home. We titled the picture of Buddy and his skull: ‘Alas, poor Yorkie, I knew him well.'”
Robin West - Brewery Sign
Creator: Robin West
Country: Missouri, USA
Printer: Creality Ender 5 Plus (sign), Qidi Tech X-Pro (lithophane)
Material: Solutech PLA, HzST3D PLA
What I’ve printed: “This is a brewery sign for my personal home brewery. (No copyright infringement.) I wanted to take advantage of the large build size of the 5-Plus and make a sign. I tried a lot of ways to make a 3-D image of the dog, but never liked the results. Instead, I chose to make a back-lit sign with a lithophane picture of the ‘Malty Pup.'”
A little bit about it: “The sign was done on Fusion 360 and the lithophane insert was done on Image to Lithophane. I spent a lot of time trying to get this correct, and was very personally happy with how it turned out.”
Phil Warren - 1/4 scale T-Rex
Creator: Phil Warren
Country: Maine, USA
Printer: Anycubic Chiron
Material: ZYLTech Ceramic White PLA
What I’ve printed: 1/4 scale T-Rex by Kyokouyou
A little bit about it: This T-Rex was printed in 20 parts taking about 2,000 hours of print time. “All parts are attached together with steel threaded rods and Bondo and then worked on with a Dremel hand tool to duplicate the skin texture. After completing the prints I decided to add 4 x 1/4 scale velociraptor (similar to Jurassic World). So far I have completed three with the final raptor left to print. On completion of this last raptor, I will start the spraying and airbrush process to complete the set.”
License: The text of "Say Hello to a Covid-19 Lockdown Gallery of Prints by Our Readers" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.