Prince's Love Symbol Guitar - 3D Printed Chocolate Mold

This project was created not only to commemorate the great and late Prince, but also because my high school engineering teacher and I decided that to challenge me properly, I needed to create something that I thought was interesting, something that I was proud of, and something that other people would like. The idea was born when we saw the "Purple" challenge, and here is the result; a 3D printed chocolate mold of Prince's Love Symbol guitar and a purple chocolate mold of it!

Step 1: Steps to Make Your Own 3D Print of the Love Symbol Guitar:

1. Using 3D modelling (I used Autodesk Inventor Professional 2015), create a sketch resembling the guitar, either eyeballing a photo of it, or sketching right on top a photo of it (you should be able to remove the photo or disable its visibility when done.)

2.When finished with the sketch, you will extrude the sketch .25 in out, and finish the extrusion. After this, you'll want to fillet every edge 1 in/ 9 ul so that when you go to take the frozen chocolate out of the mold, it comes out easily.

3. From here, you'll want to start a circle sketch on the outside of the guitar. Dimension this sketch at 2/3 of an inch, and make sure the center point is .016 from the edge. When you extrude this feature, you'll extrude it at 1/14 in.

4. Then, make six circles on the head, three on each side. They need to be between .188 and .200 in apart from each other, and .90 in in diameter. Extrude these at 1/16 in.

5. Now we're working on the saddle. Start a sketch on the same face as the previous sketches, and create a rectangle in the low-center of the guitar, sitting on top of the circle we just extruded. The width should be 1/4 in, and the height should be .122 in.The bottom of the rectangle should be .139 in from the bottom of the circle it sits on. Extrude the rectangle to .04 in.

6. Strings are optional, as the chocolate may not totally fill them because they're so small, but detail counts, so I did them anyway. Make multiple strings attached to the saddle, and be sure to make them closed polygons so that you can extrude them later on. I drew one string, and rectangular patterned it across the neck of the guitar.When extruding, I extruded them inward .02 in.

7. Now you'll want to click on the mirror feature in your document. Click on Mirror a Solid. Select the face with all the detail that we just created (the strings, saddle, etc.) Make sure the you've clicked Join so that they are connected. Press OK, and you have a solid guitar! Make sure to save your document.

Step 2: How to Create the Mold

Now for creating the mold:

1. Create a sketch in a new part file. Create a rectangle; the height should be 3.500 in and the width should be 6.500 in. Extrude this feature out 1.5 in. Save your document.

2. Start an assembly file. Click on "Place" and bring both your solid block and your guitar into the assembly. "Constrain" the mid planes of the guitar to the mid plane of the block. Create a cavity by clicking on the (-) button. Save this, and then save a copy of it.

3. Go to the copy of your hollowed mold and start a sketch at the base of the guitar. Place a point in the center of the guitar cavity. Click on "Hole" and select the point you just placed. Select "Countersink" and dimension the hole at the top to 1 in in diameter. The hole that is inside the mold should be .25 in in diameter. Make sure the selected termination of the hole is 'Termination' and that the hole ends when it hits the guitar. For me, the measurement of this was 1 in.

4. On one side, put points on any sharp edges or places of potential air bubbling so that there are no air pockets in the chocolate when frozen. Select the 'Drilled' feature, and make the dimension of these 1/7 in in depth and the hole at the bottom 1/16 in diameter.

5. Split the mold into two halves, one left and one right.

6. Using a 3D Printing platform ( I used MakerBot) 3D print each side your mold with the guitar cavity facing upward so that you don't have to cut out all of the supports and there are no imperfections in your design.

Step 3: Creating the Mold

Now for the best part!

1. Thoroughly wash each side of the mold in hot water.

2. Melt your white chocolate and put equal amounts red and blue food dye in the melted chocolate. The more you put in, the darker the color will be.

3. Pour the chocolate into the cavity through the large hole at the bottom. Place in freezer, set with the air holes side up so that no chocolate seeps out.

4. Let freeze.

5. When frozen, pop chocolate out of mold, and enjoy!

Step 4: