Knit Bowl!

Howdy, wonderful people!

One thing I really love about design is stripping things back to just the essentials, and working out what aspects are really important to something's identity.  Balls of wool turn out to be really iconic things, and it took me a while to finally find an approach to detailing this design in a way that made my brain say "ball of wool!".

That's what this is - a ball of wool!  Well, a bowl and lid in the shape of a ball of wool.  Of course, we need to make sure the texture lines up when the lid is on the base, so there are three orienting elements that make sure the lid can only go on one way.  What's more, two of those have voids, just in case you want to add some magnets during printing!

Printing Tips and Optional Magnets

This model requires no supports and is designed for straightforward printing!  The tolerance between the lid and the base is pretty generous, too, so fit shouldn't be an issue.

The lid and base both print right-side-up, like so: 

Optional Magnets!  

Yes, this design allows for the insertion of magnets during the print, if you so choose.  It's purely optional, though, and the lid sits neatly on the bowl regardless.

The voids accept 6x3mm cylindrical magnets, so just pause your print just before the void is about to be closed over, and glue the magnet in.  Gluing is a good idea just to make sure that the magnet doesn't get pulled out by attraction to the hotend!  Note that the void in the lid tapers inwards for 1mm before closing over - you'll want to insert the magnet at the start of that tapering, rather than the end of it.

One piece of advice: Triple check the orientation of the magnets before putting them in, and keep them organised and mark one side to be really sure!  It's really disappointing to proudly place the lid on the bowl, only to have the magnets repel.  I know this from sad first-hand experience.

Dimensions

The base occupies 106mm x 106mm on the print bed, and is 59mm tall.

The lid occupies 98mm x 98mm on the print bed, and is 93mm tall.

File Location

You'll find this on Dropbox under 744 Knit Bowl

(Dropbox link post:  https://www.patreon.com/posts/dropbox-and-are-31697592 )

Final Thoughts

Those embedded magnets really do have a neatness about them - I am going to have to go back to the slide-top box and retrofit that with the same approach!  

That said, there's a certain simplicity to just gluing in visible magnets after the fact, especially if pausing prints is impractical.  So, if anyone would prefer some visible magnet voids, let me know and I'll whip up an alternative version :)

Happy printing!

xoxo

Sven.

Edit: More stuff!

By popular demand there's now a crochet hook version :)  Also, there are versions of each design that have the magnets exposed, as well as versions with the magnets hidden - you'll find them all in the same dropbox folder!