3D Printed Miniature Milk Holder and Bottles

Hi Makers!

This is a little birthday present I made for a friend, it has been designed in Fusion 360, 3D printed on Ender 3 Pro in black PLA+ and hand painted.

Supplies

3D printer

Paint

Brushes

Grit 320 and 1000 sand paper

Glue (optional)

Step 1: Print the Parts You Need

The set has 6 bottles, one bottle holder, one handle bar on top and 2 side bars.

I used 0.2mm layer resolution to print the bottle holder and its parts, and 0.12mm for the bottles as I wanted a better finish straight out of the printer.

Step 2: Prep the Prints for Painting

Clean the prints with the 320 grit paper to sand the layer lines, then use the 1000 grit to make them really nice and smooth.

You can use wet and dry sand paper or the normal one, usually a little bit of water helps in the process.

When you are happy with the result, wash the parts with cold water and let them dry.

You can apply masking tape on the bottles to the lid line, this will help you to have a nice straight line when you paint them.

Step 3: Painting

Last but not least, we have to make it nice!

I used a first layer of white paint to get the wood effect, don't cover up the black too much, this will give you the deep and old wood colour.

When the white paint is dry, apply a second dry layer of brown paint. Dry layer means you use a dry brush with a very small amount of paint.

Keep going until you have the wood effect you are looking for. You can add more white (3rd layer) if you want a "shabby-chic" effect.

Assembly the two side bars and the handle bar into the holes of the box.
The side bars connection pins are offset on one side, keep the pins on the bottom when placing them in position. This is to match the shape of the bottle holder.

My printer did an excellent job in printing the parts, so when I assembled them I didn't need to use any glue to keep the together.

Finally paint the bottle lids with chrome paint (or any colour you like!)

When everything is dry, place the bottle into the holder and your set will be ready!

Comments

[Penolopy Bulnick]

These are adorable!

So you mention doing these at different layer resolutions. Do you need to use a different extruder when you do that or can you do that will all the same extruder? (I do 3D printing projects but that's one thing I'm never sure about messing around with)

[StefanoS48]

I used the same extruder....but if I understand what you mean you are talking about the nozzle. Normally 3D printers come with 0.4 mm nozzle and this define the width of your extruded filament line. Having a different nozzle (0.2 for example) means you can print smaller details as the line is thinner. But keep in mind that using small size nozzle can be tricky and most of the time not worth it for common models. Changing the layer height instead does not require any mechanical modification and can give you impressive quality. For example, 0.06 layer height takes more time but you can barely see the layers when the print is finished. They are very visible in 0.2 mm layers. Hope this helps!

[Penolopy Bulnick]

Yeah, I do not know as much about my printer as I should.
So you can still do a smaller layer height with a .4mm nozzle? I guess I thought you were still restricted and would need a smaller nozzle to do a smaller layer height.

[StefanoS48]

Absolutely, in your slicer software just set the layer height to 0.12 or 0.06 for a better resolution. Tip, leave the first layer as 0.24 if you use 0.12 and 0.18 if you use 0.06. This is just to match the resolution you use and it's easier to set a nice first layer ;)

[Penolopy Bulnick]

Thanks for the tips!

[jessyratfink]

Aww, so tiny and cute :D

[StefanoS48]

Thank you very much!!! :)