[Chuck] Many times, 3D printing is used to create interesting prints. We enjoyed the modification to an inexpensive LED Christmas tree kit. It was just a couple of green PCBs shaped into a Christmas tree. Although cute, it’s not one that non-nerds would find appealing. Is this what you are looking for? [Chuck] It was printed with a clear PLA coating and came out fantastic. See the full video.
Although transparent PLA might seem transparent, the layers make it more transparent than transparent. It works well for an LED diffuser. Printing for this purpose requires some consideration. First, you’d think vase mode would be perfect for this, but he found out it didn’t work well — possibly due to something in the model, which was a download from Thingiverse.
This probably wouldn’t do well for, say, an LED numeric display where you actually want to see the digits. The tree project was an artistic example of this. It made the raw LEDs and the PCB much cleaner. Of course, like us, you may like the PCB and raw LED look, but you probably have friends and possibly a significant other who don’t have the same sense of aesthetics we do. It’s okay! No problem! Your hacker buddies will be able to pop the cover off. We thought you could actually print half of a Christmas tree and then put it on a rotating base. This would give you the best of both the worlds.
It is obvious once you have seen it. It was a puzzle to us how small a square would be to diffuse the individual panel LEDs. There are many settings available to increase transparency. Certain settings and materials are better than others.