Customizable 3D Printable Jack-O-Lantern

It's fall again! My favorite season and home of my favorite holiday ever, Halloween! With the leaves changing colors, and the weather getting cooler, I was inspired to make something that would fit with the season.

I took some time to put together a 3D printed Jack-o-Lantern, which was the perfect candidate for customization. So here we are. I can't wait to get my hands on some orange ABS!

Step 1: "Sketching" My 3D Design

I like to use SketchUp to rough out my ideas before moving to OpenSCAD. I find it to be a quick and easy way to get something I like before committing myself to any code. 

I went with a slightly "low rez" styled pumpkin which was easy enough to recreate in OpenSCAD.

When I am designing a model in SketchUp that I plan on converting to OpenSCAD I try to use only the primitive solids that OpenSCAD has built in. As you can see in the attached screenshots I used mostly cylinders to create the shape of my Jack-O-Lantern, which made it pretty easy to transfer over to OpenSCAD as cylinders are a built-in primitive.

Step 2: Converting to OpenSCAD

After roughing out my design in SketchUp it was time to take measurements of the model using the "Dimension" tool and creating identical primitives in my OpenSCAD model. 

After creating my pumpkin, and making a face that I found appealing, I created several sets of eyes, noses, and mouths to be "cut out" of my pumpkin using OpenSCAD's "difference" function. These can be swapped out of the model as easily as changing the value of one variable in the OpenSCAD file. This makes it easy for anyone to get a pumpkin all their own.

Step 3: Uploading to Thingiverse and Customizer

Now that I had a customizable model I used the settings found here to make sure my model was compatible with the Customizer app on Thingiverse. This makes customizing the Jack-O-Lantern really easy, no coding required!

I've made the source available on Thingiverse to be used with Customizer. The .scad file can also be downloaded for manual and offline manipulation.

After you've generated a model you're happy with, print it out on your 3D printer! I've also left an optional spot on the bottom to accommodate some LEDs or other light source. As you can see in the photo it looks pretty cool lit up!

The completed "Customizable Jack-O-Lantern" can be found here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:162641

More information about OpenSCAD can be found here: http://www.openscad.org/

Happy Halloween!