3D Printed Dragonfly With Tinkercad

Do you hear about bamboo dragonflies? I played it in my childhood, which kids' hands can make with a stick and long blade fixed on the top of the shaft. Kids can spin the pole with their hands to let it fly high in the air, which looks like a dragonfly. It is a fascinating toy to play with among kids' outdoor activities. This time I made it with Autodesk Tinkercad and the 3D printer.

Autodesk Tinkercad

3D printer

Metalcast brand color coat spay

knife

Acrylic paint (blue, white, black)

I sketched up the general idea of the bamboo dragonfly, which is exactly like the actual insect--dragonfly. I needed to model a pole for hands to hold, spin, and model a long blade as the propeller in flight. To look like a funny dragonfly, I would add a tiny head with tentacles on the top of the blade. The whole thing with all the parts assembled will be a very fantastic toy for kids.

I modeled the bamboo dragonfly by Autodesk Tinkercad, then export the model file with the dragonfly.STL. I opened Creality Slicer to import the Dragonfly.STL and exported to the 3D printer with file Dragonfly.gcode. So the bamboo dragonfly becomes an actual product.

I used a knife to ground the blade's edges to be round and glued the tiny head to the center of the blade, which looks straight and perfect. Then I use a metal color spray to paint the whole product blue. After that, I needed to paint details of the dragonfly's eyes, stripes of its body, and the pattern of the wings with Acrylic paint. Now a vivid dragonfly comes, and it will fly in the air pushed by my hands.

It's time to let it fly! Please watch my video.