3D Printed Glowing Lightning Bolt Logo

by Arnov Sharma in Workshop > 3D Printing

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3D Printed Glowing Lightning Bolt Logo

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Hey everyone how you doing!

So here's something super cool and FAST to make, a Huge Glowing Lightning Bolt Logo with 3D Printing.

The goal here was to make a Glowing Lightning Bolt logo from THE FLASH with no complex circuitry, just some plain old LED Strip and 3D Printed body.

In this instructable, I'm gonna share the whole built process of this Logo.

So let's get started.

Supplies

These are the things I used in this built-

  • 3D Printed parts
  • Superglue
  • 12V Adaptor
  • 12V WHITE LED STRIP

Design and Planning

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In order to get started, I first have to search for an image of a lightning bolt that I will trace in Fusion360 to make the basic shape.

  • In Fusion360, I uploaded the image of a lightning bolt and calibrated its size so it would be 500mm long.
  • After that, I modeled the bolt by tracing the image and the end result was a huge lighting bolt logo that is ready to be 3D Printed.

3D Printing Process

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Now here's a slight problem, I only have an Ender 3 whose built area is 235mm x 235 mm but my model is 500m Long.

To print the model on my ender 3, I cut down the model into seven pieces and printed all of them with these below settings by using orange PLA.

  • Nozzle size- 0.8mm
  • Layer height- 0.32mm
  • Supports- YES
  • Infill- 30%

Printing all the parts took two cycles as in the first cycle, the built plate was completely filled.

Attaching the 3D Printed Parts Together #1

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After 3D Printing all the parts, I then align all the parts according to their right place and started the super gluing process which involves me using a plastic quick adhesive to permanently attach all the PC together.

Now, because there were so many pcs, I joined all the parts in 3 different parts first.

Attaching the 3D Printed Parts Together #2

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I then connected the previously attached Pcs together to make a single unit with help of super glue.

PS- I also used fiber tape to hold down two parts while the glue solidifies, it helps a lot in keeping all the 3D Printed parts intact and sturdy. Then End result will be a Huge Lighting Bolt made completely out of PLA. Now let's add LEDs to it and make it glow.

Adding Light Strip

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To Make things glow, the best way is to add LED strips onto them.

I've made the bolt in such a way that the Bottom side has a wall all over the Bolt shape, we can attach an LED strip onto this wall.

I haven't used any LED Driver or Microcontroller based Circuit in this project, I could use a circuit that fades or control the LED in any way but I didnt because of keeping this project simple and easy to make.

Here's one suggestion, we can use LEDs that are controlled by a remote control like those fancy RGB Strips that comes with remote control.

I didnt have those so I use a white LED strip instead.

Power Source

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As for the power source, I'm using a generic 12V SMPS adaptor which isn't really a 12V Adaptor as its output voltage is around 15V but it will work just fine with the LED Strip.

Finalizing

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I added positive and negative wires of the adaptor directly with the LED Strip VCC and GND.

I then added hot glue to hold the wire in its place and secure the solder joints.

Result

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Here's the result of this short-built, a Huge 3D Printed FLASH Logo made which also serves as a night lamp.

I'm planning to make a Batman Logo Next so stay tuned for that, thanks for reading this Instructables.

If you have any problem while making this, DM me.

Thanks again and stay safe, peace.