3D Printed Gnomes for the Garden

Gardens can be filled with plenty of beautiful things, but… Aren't  gnomes the best choice for your backyard? Gnomes have been surrounding our gardens for centuries and they have plenty of styles! Here you will find a minimalist gnome that fits any house!

This project is about designing and prototyping! We wanted to test some gnomes we had in mind that's why we built them with our CAD software we used in university and our 3D printer. The most important thing is imagination. Do not forget it!

Elements we have needed to make the gnomes:

• 3d printer
• ABS filament
• Paper and pen!
• PC
• (Cura Software and CAD software)

Yes! Imagine your next neighbor and companion. It could be tiny or it could be enormous, with lots of details or… minimalist! The most important thing of this project was the design. It is very useful to plan how you want your gnome to seem. 

In our case, we looked for a minimalist and small gnome that would fit perfectly anywhere.  We did some sketches and types of gnomes. As you can see, we created a whole family! But we wanted to make our first gnome, so we decided to make the dreamer one.

We modeled our gnome in the CAD software of our laptop we used in university: SolidWorks. It can be made with any CAD software available and there are more suitable. In this case we managed with this one because we are used to it.

We needed to specify the geometry of the different parts and identify the main bodies of our gnome: 

• Hat
• Hea
• Body
• Shoulders
• Arms
• Legs

After having defined the main bodies, we did one sketch - one body  design. With this methodology we found it very easy to define the gnome shape.

WARNING: We were supposed to build our gnome by 3D Printing it. In order to avoid manufacturing problems, we avoided any sharp endings and cantilever design.

After having designed our virtual gnome, it is time to print it!

First of all, we need to specify the printing parameters in the slicer (printer software). We use Cura and we have predefined parameters for printing with plastic. The plastic material is called ABS and is used in a wide variety of products in the industry. Very good for 3D printing, even more for objects that will stand outside. It has long-life properties for outdoors weather.

In cura we verify the printing process and the support structure it is used to build the gnome. It is very important to select a good printing support! We did a firts essay with our little gnome and we found very difficult to unattach supports from the body after printing.

For the bigger one (the big brother/sister) we defined the tree functon for building supports. This allows the printer to build supports from the bottom to the cantilever edge. This are Cura printing modes. You can find more information in the software webpage!

After seleting ABS temperature for the printing  noozle (230ºC) we were ready to print it.

After having  removed the supports, it is time to place your new neightbours. We looked for different places like trees with mushrooms and the grass. Finally… We loved them at the tree!