Fixing Haley’s Rose Lights

Last week, on Tuesday March 29th, 2016, the 3D printing class had a class challenge to 3D print a piece to fix something broken. My partner for this project was Channing, and we decided to fix Haley’s rose lights. The lights are like a string of Christmas lights, except that they have paper roses attached which act as a lampshade. On two of the lights, the plastic piece which attached the rose to the lights was missing. Our objective was to print replacements.

There were several components which were key to the success of the print. The piece needed to be large enough to slide onto the lights, but not so big that it would easily slide back off. It also needed to have a lip at the top for the rose to hold onto. Here is what the final pieces looked like in Tinkercad:

The design of the print was not overly complicated, but the sizing was a big issue. We measured the diameter of the lights and attempted to make the hole the same width, but this was pretty much impossible. The first three times we printed it, the hole was too small to slide onto the lights. The fourth time was the charm, though, as the clips attached properly the fourth time. We actually couldn’t get them to attach in class, but Haley was able to get them to attach at home.

The final clips work perfectly. They are sturdily attached to the lights, and the roses don’t fall off even if the lights are dangling.