I designed a lamp in Fusion 360 and 3-D printed it using a special mode to make the shell very thin. I am a senior at Cincinnati Country Day School in Cincinnati, Ohio. I did this on a Creality CR-10 printer.

Supplies

Fusion 360

Cura

3-D printer and PLA filament

Candelabra base small LED lightbulb

This or a similar sized cord:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Portfolio-5-ft-16-AWG-2-Conductor-Clear-Lamp-Cord/1000040725

Step 1: Create Outline

To start the design, we must do a sketch of the flat shape we want, which is the outline of the lamp. First start off by using the spline tool to create the shape you want. I made a shape like a sine curve. When designing the spline curve, take into consideration how steep the curve is. If the curve is to steep, the 3-D printer will not be able to keep the shape together and your printed shape may have some gaps in it.

Step 2: Add Radius

Next we need to add depth to our 2-D curve. Add a 45 mm line to each end of the spline curve and then connect the two lines horizontally at the bottom. The 45mm line is the radius for what the final 3-D shape will be. Once the lines are all connected, we can finish the sketch.

Step 3: Make Your Design 3-d

Now let's use the revolve tool to make our design 3-D. Click on the body of the shape to select it for revolve, then click on the bottom line of the shape to select it as the axis to revolve around. Fusion 360 will revolve your design 360 degrees.

Step 4: Add Hole

There is still a bit left to do. When the 3-D shape is created, it is solid and has no place to insert the light and cord. We will fix the first problem later in Cura, but we can add a hole for the light now in Fusion 360. Use the hole tool in the top left and drag the red hole to the middle of your shape. The middle will be automatically represented by a dot, which your mouse will snap to when close. In the box on the right hand side, change the height to go all the way through the lamp and the width to 25mm to fit the light.

Step 5: Save As Mesh

Once we are done and happy with our shape, open up the bodies tab and right click on the shape (usually called Body1). Save as mesh and change the format to STL binary.

Step 6: Slice in Cura

Open up your saved shape and rotate it so the top of the lamp is touching the build plate. Search for spiralize outer contour and check the box. This setting only prints the outside shell of the shape. Instead of printing one layer at a time, the printer prints one continous spiral of filament on the build plate. This makes the print very thin. Change the shell settings to match the picture provided to print the top of the lamp, but no bottom. Remember we flipped the bottom and top. The top and bottom are flipped so the printer does not need to build supports for the entire print to hold the top up. Make sure to also add a raft (located under Build Plate Adhesion) to add stability for the print.