Faux Stained Glass - 3D Printed

Hello, craft enthusiasts and printer pals! Welcome to DIY Machines, The channel where I show you step-by-step how to build your own awesome projects. In this Instructable digital designs meets with traditional charm. 

I’m Lewis and we’re going to be diving into the fantastic world of 3D-printed stained glass creations filled with gorgeous, colourful resin! 🌈🪟

I’ll guide you through every step, from dreaming up your design to mixing and pouring the perfect resin hues. Whether you're a 3D printing newbie or a crafting guru, you’ll be churning out eye-catching creations and creating amazing unique and thoughtful gifts that light up any room they’re in. 💡🎨

As with all my projects I have also created an Instructional Video. I highly recommend taking a look - especially as the intro will give you a quick overview of the process as well as a preview of some of the designs I've pre-made for your 3D Printer. Don't worry if you want to read the instructions, this Instructable contains all the information from the video and a few extra bonus tips.

Check out the video above. And at the end of the video and this Instructable I'll also show you how to create your own templates for 3D printing.

You’re need just a few things to make your own,

Some two part Resin: https://geni.us/UVResistantResin (10% discount code on Amazon: 'DIYMachines')

Some Mica power and/or pigments to colour the resin:

• Mica powders: https://geni.us/MicaPowder
• Colour Pigments: https://geni.us/EpoxyDye

You’ll also want some small pots, stirring sticks, gloves and worktop protector.

• Reusable silicone pots: https://amzn.to/46rSZyH
• Worktop protector: https://amzn.to/3WIk25V
• Wooden sticks: https://amzn.to/3A4x7xu
• Single Use Gloves: https://amzn.to/3Yjb28r

For the templates you’ll need some Printing filament - one transparent and another in the colour of your choice which will make up the ‘came’ of our finished pieces.

• Printing filament:
• One transparent: https://www.3djake.uk/3djake/petg-clear-1
• And another in the colour of your choice: https://www.3djake.uk/3djake/petg-black-2

And yes - you’ll need a 3D printer to print out the templates. For those of you without access to a printer you can find all of the designs you see in in this video pre-printed on my international Etsy shop (http://diymachines.etsy.com) you still get to enjoy the resin fun.

For those of you who do have a 3D printer. You’ll find loads of designs available to freely download from my website diymachines.co.uk. And stick around as mentioned, later in this Instructable I’ll show you how to create your own designs using Chat GPT and Fusion 360.

For now, let’s print out the mini surfboards, butterfly, and plant stake so we can put together several designs at once.

I printed mine with a 0.32mm layer height using a 0.6mm nozzle. After the first two layers have been completed in translucent filament I then switch to a different colour for the remainder of the print. Black for some and a metal effect for the others. I used 3D Jakes filament and recommend PETG if you will be placing your projects in direct sunlight.

With these complete we can start preparing the resin. Please read and observe all the safety notices on the resin you’re using. Once it has cured it’s safe, but it can be less then pleasant before this. 

I’m using a two part resin by JDiction, I’ve chosen this one as it has twice the resistance to UV yellowing than other resins, is self levelling and self degassing which means we shouldn’t have to worry too much about air bubbles appearing in our work.

The instructions say we need to mix the two parts equally by volume not weight. I won’t be working quick enough to warrant pre-mixing enough resin for the entire project. So I’ll mix some now, then once that it used up I’ll prepare an additional batch.

I mixed 100ml of part A with 100ml of part B by stirring slowly until no swirls are seen making sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing pot thoroughly.

I’ve invested in a set of silicone cups as once used, the resin can be left to harden inside them and then simply removed ready to be reused again.

Once this is well mixed we can decanter a small amount and add our colours, you can use the mica powders for a more metallic and varied colour, or these pigments provide a better block colour. Start by incorporating a small amount as we want the light to be able to pass through he finished project for that convincing stained glass effect.

Pour this into the sections of your print being careful not to drop it where you don’t want it. Keeping some paper towel to hand is a good idea.

Keep repeating this to fill up the various sections. You can also add additional shades or colours directly into your print after pouring the resin and use a mixing tool to incorporate it in a creative fashion like on these plant leaves.

Leave your project in an area at room temperature and protect its top surface from settling dust.

Now the resin will require 16 to 24 hours to fully cure but after the first eight hours, you can add additional layers if you want to adjust the opacity or colours of your project.

There are loads of additional designs available for free from my website and printables page, I hope that anyone who creates their own deign also shares it online as a remix of the original so that you can discover it and have the chance to create your own version of it.

You can sketch out your own design on a blank sheet of paper. Ensure it is not overly detailed - small areas or pockets will be tricky to fill with resin later. all the outside edges need to be enclosed as well to contain the resin.

Once the drawing is complete photograph from directly above and send this image to your computer.

If you want to create a stained glass project of your own design then we can ask AI to do some of the heavy lifting.

You can use generative AI to create an image as a reference for the CAD design. Here I asked ChatGPT to create a simple stained glass window design for someone who is a fan of the fall out game franchise.

We can then add our reference image as a canvas in fusion 360.

Open a new project inside Fusion 360 and select ‘insert’ from the toolbar at the top and then select ‘canvas’. Find the image you either created with AI.

Click on the bottom face to apply your image to it. You can then use the manipulation handles to slightly increase the size of the image for now.

We can insert a rectangle the same size as our print volume to ensure we keep everything to an appropriate scale.

In the tree on the left, open the canvas folder, right click only our image and choose ‘edit canvas’. You can now rescale and reposition your reference image.

For tips on how to effectively use each tool hover over them.

To trace our image we can use an array of Sketch tools in fusion 360. The common ones for simple shapes are Circle, Squares and Rectangles. These are self explanatory. For everything else I recommend the very capable 'Fit Point Spline'.

This can be a little confusing to get to work how you desire on a fist attempt so here is some guidance for you:

Select the Spline Tool:

• In the sketch environment, go to the toolbar and find the "Create" dropdown menu.
• Select "Spline" from the dropdown. Fusion 360 offers different spline options, but the most common one and the one we are using is the "Fit Point Spline".

Drawing the Spline:

• Click on the plane to place the starting point of the spline.
• Click again to place subsequent points. Each click adds a control point that defines the curvature of the spline.
• As you place more points, you'll see the curve start to form.
• To finish the spline, press the "Enter" key or right-click and select "OK".

Adjusting the Spline:

• After drawing the spline, you can adjust its shape by moving the control points.
• Click on any control point and drag it to a new position.
• You can also add more control points by right-clicking on the spline and selecting "Insert Point".

Tips:

• Smoothness: To create smoother curves, try to place control points at equal distances and avoid sharp angles.
• Constraints: Utilize constraints to control the behavior of the spline in relation to other sketch elements.
• Fine-Tuning: Use the "Control Vertex Spline" if you need more precise control over the curvature through control vertices rather than fit points. This however, I will leave for you to discover. 🙂

After you have finished the tracing we can extrude the lines. To do this, open the ‘solid’ menu, then under ‘create’ choose ‘extrude’. We then need to create a thin extrude by selecting the option on the extrude dialogue box.

Select all the contours you have drawn one by one. On a Mac this is done by holding down the command key and on windows it’s the CTRL key. Then set the distance to 4mm, wall thickness to 1.6mm and wall location to centre. If some lines won’t extrude in this operation, we can continue then create a second extrude feature for the remaining lines.

This makes up the walls of our project, we will now add the translucent base to contain the resin. 

Create a new sketch on the same bottom plane we used earlier. This time we will use the project tool to project the outer perimeters outline onto our new sketch, we can then perform a standard extrude on this sketch extruding it -0.4mm.

Save your work and then export it for 3D printing by right clicking on the body in the file tree on the left and choosing ‘save as mesh’. 

This can then be sliced in your slicing program of choice and then voila. There is your own custom creation. 

And there you have it! A big dash of colourful creativity thanks to a little help from our trusty 3D printer and some bright resin. I hope you enjoy your stained glass beauties as much as I am.

If you enjoyed watching and maybe even learned a thing or two, please consider giving this project a thumbs up. It really helps out a lot! And if you haven’t already, go ahead and hit that subscribe/follow button. Every like, comment, and subscription goes a long way in supporting the channel and my projects, I have plenty more projects coming your way, and you might not want to miss them!

Don't forget to share this video with any friends who might want to make their own (or who you want to make some for you!)

Subscribe here on Instructables or over on my Youtube channel to keep up-to-date. (https://www.youtube.com/diymachines) And don't forget to take a look at my other projects.

Take care, do some good, and ciao for now. 🙂

Lewis