I am going to make a little candle holder for my brother… I want it to be kid-safe and easy to use. I am thinking about using a Target brand glass candle, and a 3d printed futuristic fire pit to surround it. Any tips for making it top-notch quality and safe for him to use?
I plan on using PETG around the main candle area for better heat resistance, and wood filament for the rest. For the lid, I will try to glue aluminum foil into a PETG lid that is wood PLA on the outside. It will look like a cover for the fire pit.
Any constructive feedback is absolutely welcome; this model will likely be available on Makerworld soon.
Since this sounds like a real candle, I’m not sure I’d even make anything out of plastic to surround it. If the wick isn’t trimmed properly you can get a fair size flame and you don’t want to rely on any procedural safety steps with children. It all should be fail safe.
I wouldn’t have anything plastic above the glass jar rim and would maintain a good air gap separation between the glass and the plastic to prevent warming/softening. Even then I’d run it with an oversize flame and make sure nothing gets hot or maybe even warm depending on your level of risk acceptance.
Or, go with a tealight flickering LED candle and sidestep all the possible danger issues with open flames. You can make really cool enclosures for LED tealights and there are a bunch of models on MakerWorld for inspiration or to just use as is if any designs resonate.
I’m on the same line of thought as @MZip
If you really want to try something out, I’d recommend using PC for the heat resistance & the low ability to keep burning once ignited. Most definetively, do not use it for the lid. PLA/PETG are not heat friendly, ABS and ASA are not flame friendly (burn quite well once ignited).
One thing you could consider is the setup I used to make myself a LiPo box - Use PC and design an interior “layer” to be made out of some gypssium based medium (I used plaster paris).
I designed a negative, poured the liquid plaster between the PC case and the negative, and then removed the negative once dry (or if you want to be extra safe, do the whole thing out of plaster and only use 3D print as a mold).
If that sounds like too much trouble you can also go on the PLA+LED candle route, but absolutely do not use a real candle with the setup you described.
Plenty of shops sell plastic candle holders. There is no reason you can’t print one. I would use a fire resistant filament - not just one that has high temp resistance, but one that melts instead of burns. Bambu has one, though I can’t remember the name PC-FR I think. The advertise it for electrical enclosures.
Dripping wax needs to not melt and deform your print, so make any features in the drip area thicc [walls,tops,bottoms] and out of something that can take some heat ideally.
It could be a fun excuse to use some wildly over the top engineering filament designed for high heat,
Thank you for these suggestions! The candle comes in a little glass (it looks like an American shot glass). This will keep the wax contained and aid just a little bit with temperature dampening. I have used paper cups to put out a candle before (and watched it afterwards to ensure no fire started). Plastic is much stronger heat-wise than paper, and I am thinking that if I embed some form of ventilation into the lid, everything will be just fine.
