EZ Popsicle Mold

Hello! My name is Ethan Ngo and I’m from San Jose State University. I chose to create a popsicle mold that could make 4 small popsicles. The mold was created using Fusion 360 with the goal being to create a simple popsicle mold and exposing myself to Fusion’s design tools.

In order to create my popsicle mold (and resulting popsicle), I needed the following materials:

• Hatchbox PLA Filament (Metallic Red, Yellow, Mint Green, Blue, and Heat Sensitive Pink)
• Water
• Creality Ender 3 Printer 

I wanted to do a project that matched the summer theme while also helping me prep for future projects in my club at SJSU. One of the key components of our future project in the Human-Powered Vehicle Challenge is being able to mold a fairing for our bike. Thus, I decided to make a popsicle mold in order to hone my skills and better prepare for the bike project. I saw a thin steel popsicle mold that matched the type of material strength I would be using, a hard plastic. I found that the creator utilized warm water to get the popsicle out which I also wanted to incorporate into my design.

In order to create my mold using fusion 360, I started by taking a sketch of the base of the mold. This would be important in the creation of my cap as I could utilize the same sketch to create the shell. I decided upon a rounded square to ensure the highest print quality using our club’s 3D printers. I then offset a new outline to serve as an indentation for the cap to fit into the shell. I utilized the fillet function to round out my corners and to better improve the print quality of my mold. I designed the mold to be a tenth of an inch thick to allow the warm water’s heat to pass through the mold to loosen the popsicle.

I printed my shell mold in a metallic yellow filament to match the summer theme of the project. It came out perfect on the first attempt and required no fitting adjustments. I also tested running warm water over it to ensure that the mold could withstand the heat and force of the warm water.

Using the framework of the mold design, I created a single cap sketch that was able to fit in the mold. I took the indentation shape from the mold and extruded it out on the cap to fit the mold. Additionally, I extruded out the cap and a handle to grab onto the popsicle. I also needed a tooth to stick out from the cap to hold the ice. I adjusted the thickness of the tooth over testing to better hold the popsicle. A single cap design was chosen to print the caps in different colors instead of all 4 being the same color.

I was able to choose more colors with the caps to diversify my project, utilizing red, blue, mint green, and pink. However, the pink filament was actually a heat sensitive filament that allowed me to verify when the popsicle was cold and warm. When I put the popsicle mold in the freezer, it would turn purple when the popsicle was ice cold. Then when I ran warm water over it, the model would turn orange to indicate it was warm. This was good for my project in order to ensure I was reaching the correct temperatures needed.

I also utilized Fusion 360’s animation feature to demonstrate my project’s assembly to showcase how the caps fit into the indentation I made into the mold. This was important from a virtual demonstration perspective to showcase to my peers how the mold works.

Once all my parts were printed, I filled each section of the mold with water and placed the cap over them. I put it in the freezer for 4 hours and then took it out. Once I was able to not move the caps, I took the mold out of the freezer then ran warm water from my sink in order to loosen the theoretical popsicle. I was able to successfully take icicles out and see how the popsicles would shape.

Now that I understand how to properly 3D print molds by utilizing Fusion 360, I’ll be able to replicate this process for future projects in ASME such as the Human-Powered Vehicle Challenge this year!

Here are the files I used to make and print the mold.