customisable ice cube mold
customisable ice cube mold
3D
Published 2021-06-21T09:05:27+00:00
Easily create personalised ice cubes
- No CAD skills required
- Simple print. No supports.
- Also useful as molds for kinetic sand or play-doh
Included examples (.stl):
- ICE
- GIN
- RUM
IMPORTANT: Ice molds require flexible filament
- The safety of 3d printed materials for food preparation is highly debated
- I personally use filament that is certified as food-safe (Eolas Prints TPU, Spain)
- I also use a non-toxic hardened steel nozzle, rather than a standard brass nozzle
If you've never printed with flexible filaments before:
- it's definitely worth a try!
- start with a semi-flexible filament (e.g. 95A TPU)
- start with this design (Seriously. It's dead easy.)
To release the ice, run hot water on the back of the mold, and then extract with a blunt knife.
The more flexible the filament, the easier the extraction.
How to customise:
- Install the free software OpenSCAD
- Do a 30 min online tutorial to learn the basics (use the editor, preview, render, and save as .stl)
- Download the sledge typeface
- Install the typeface so it's accessible to OpenSCAD (see forum
- Move gin_ice_mold_demo.scad and icemold.scad to the same directory and open gin_ice_mold_demo.scad in OpenSCAD.
- Modify the text. Modify mold_length_x to change the length of the ice cube.
- preview (F5), render (F6), and save as .stl
Note: if you don't want any wall text, just change the variables to empty strings (e.g. wall_text_lhs_top = "";).
Further info:
Many thanks to the support of my work colleagues at Munich-based TNG Technology Consulting GmbH. The initial concept came from a hobby project during a TNG Techday (similar to Google's "20% time").
The design is also on GitHub. The OpenSCAD code is released under a permissive licence that allows commercial use.
Slicing settings for highly flexible TPU + steel nozzle + Ender3 pro + bowden tube + bullseye cooling mod:
- model size 75%
- nozzle temperature: relatively hot (230°C)
- print speed: very slow (15 mm/s, 10mm/s first layer)
- part fan cooling: off
- retraction: off
| Date published | 21/06/2021 |
| Time to do | 300 - minutes |
| Dimensions | 82mmx44mmx22mm |
| Support Free | YES |