by 86reddawg

This church used to be located in Elbridge, TN.  Attendance dropped and rather than letting it fall into dis-repair, it was sold and moved to the Discovery Park of America in Union City, TN.  Google maps streetview still shows the church at the old location (as of 2019) but the cemetery is the only thing left in Elbridge, TN.

Print Settings

Printer Brand:                          

Prusa

Printer:                          

I3 MK3S

Rafts:                          

No

Supports:                          

Doesn't Matter

Resolution:                          

0.2mm

Filament:                                            Hatchbox, Sunlu PLA                                        White, Transparent, Red, Silk Purple                                        

Notes:

I used supports only for the bottom window sill of the body.  These aren't 100% necessary, it just gives it a little cleaner look IMO.

The base/bottom was printed at 0.2mm layer height and was designed to hastily fit a Portfolio 21675-000 LED lamp that was split into pieces.  There are much cheaper ways of doing this, but I found it at Lowes for a last minute gift.

I attempted to print the spire at a higher resolution for the slopes (0.1mm), but got a bunch of boogers and globs.  0.2mm seemed to be a good compromise.  On the top of the church body and mid spire pieces I drilled out the inner flat spot to allow light to flow all the way to the top of the spire, otherwise it looks a bit dark.  The two spire pieces were superglued to the church body and the cross was a little oversized from elephant foot, so mild trimming with an exacto knife around the shaft left a solid press fit.

The windows were printed with Sunlu transparent PLA at 0.3mm.  In PrusaSlicer, I added a 2nd color for the cross so that only 1-2 layers of the cross were printed with color (red and silk purple).  The windows were superglued into the body from the rear.  You'll need 10 of the stained glass windows (with varying colors if you choose) and 1 of the triangle windows.  In the attached picture of the windows with the red cross, the left was an earlier thinner version that didn't scatter light enough, so the window thickness was increased.

I drilled two small holes in the back of the church body for the power cable from the lamp and the on/off switch that also came with the lamp.  I intended for this to be a nightlight, but the LEDs are super bright and it's more like a daytime lamp. :D  If I redid this project, I'd look into a dimmable LED function to tune this better for a nightlight.