Hello. Here it's snowing so in this instructable I'll show you how to make 3D styrofoam snowflakes. All you need is a hot wire CNC, a piece of foam, a hot glue gun and my free patterns that you'll find at the end.

Step 1: Prepare the First Vector

You need two vectors for making this 3d puzzle snowflake. The first vector is actually a half of a normal snowflake and it looks like this.

Step 2: Prepare the Second Vector

The second vector is the side view of the first vector. We'll rotate the piece of styrofoam after cutting the first vector by 90 degrees. Then we cut the second vector that looks like this. Notice the angles on the bottom. Those angles are 60 degrees angles because we have 6 pieces in this snowflake. If we had more or less pieces we would simply divide 360 degrees to the number of pieces we want to make and find the exact angle. However, in my opinion 6 pieces are just perfect for this project. Make sure that both vectors have the same height. I added a picture of the top view so you know what to look for.

Step 3: Cut the Pieces for the Snowflake

Cut the snowflake pieces. Make sure that your styrofoam is big enaugh to fit the vectors. The 6 pieces are very fragile at this point so be very careful when taking them out.

Step 4: Glue the Pieces Together

Glue the pieces together. Be carful not to break them when gluing. Also make sure that the glue is not too hot so it melts the styrofoam. You can use a leftover piece of foam to try if it's too hot. First glue two by two so you will have three bigger pieces. Then glue two of them together, and at last glue the remaining one. Congratulations! Your 3d StyroFoam Snowflake is complete. The vectors are for a 20 cm snowflake but you can make it as large as you want. We even made 1 meter high snowflakes, check out the pictures. Please vote for my instructable in the Three Ingredient Challenge and Patterns Contest. Let me know if you liked my instructable in the comment section below.

Thanks.