3D Printing a Big LEGO Christmas Tree

Originally published on hackaday.com by Lewin Day on 20 December 2024

If you’ve ever wished for a full-sized LEGO Christmas tree to adorn your home during the holidays, you’re not alone. Makers Ruth and Ellis turned that dream into a reality by building their own giant LEGO-inspired Christmas tree. Using scaled-up 3D-printed versions of classic LEGO bricks, they created an impressive structure that perfectly captures the whimsy and charm of LEGO while serving as a functional holiday centerpiece.

The project began with scaling a standard LEGO Christmas tree design up by six times. While the concept seemed simple on paper, scaling LEGO designs introduces unique challenges. For one, large 3D prints demand significant time and material, prompting the duo to make key modifications to streamline the process. They decided to eliminate the large brown base seen in the original LEGO model, drastically reducing the print time. Similarly, they swapped the plastic support shafts with stronger steel rods to provide the necessary structural stability.

Despite these adjustments, assembling the oversized tree was no small feat. The process involved printing numerous giant bricks with precise interlocking tolerances, which required meticulous calibration of the 3D printer. Watching the build come together in their video showcases not only the ingenuity behind their design choices but also the immense effort required to recreate LEGO’s design principles at this scale.

This project isn’t the first of its kind, as other creators have also experimented with 3D printing their own LEGO-inspired builds. However, it consistently proves to be a more complicated endeavor than anticipated. The engineering behind LEGO’s original design, perfected over decades, becomes even more apparent when attempting to replicate it at a larger scale.

For anyone inspired to try a similar build, Ruth and Ellis’s project is an incredible source of ideas and lessons. Their journey demonstrates the challenges of 3D printing large models and highlights the creativity and dedication required to transform an imaginative idea into a real-world masterpiece.

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