This Custom Christmas Tree Ornament Rotates at 30RPM

Let’s face it, a Christmas tree full of matching ornaments bought as a set looks nice, but lacks any semblance of true Christmas spirit. The little baby Jesus wouldn’t want people to go and buy shiny new trinkets from a big box store, he would want people to fill their trees with handcrafted ornaments that exhibit personality and charm. To ensure that his personality and charm outshines the rest, Danny Lum made this custom ornament that rotates at 30RPM.

Thanks to 3D printing, making custom ornaments is easier than ever before. If you have a 3D printer and access to the internet, there are hundreds of free ornament designs to choose from. Pop a few into your slicer and in a few hours you’ll have some custom tree décor. But that feels like a bit of a cheat and doesn’t exactly fulfill the aforementioned Christmas spirit. So Lum took things two steps further by designing his own 3D-printable ornament from scratch and then made it spin using a small low-speed geared DC motor.

Lum’s ornament design actually required several 3D-printed parts and off-the-shelf components. The 3D-printed parts include a top, base, motor cap, interior shell, shell adapter, and the exterior shell that spins. The purchased components were the battery, motor, and motor flange. There isn’t any microcontroller or motor driver here, which is why the motor selection was so important. It receives power directly from the battery and the only thing controlling the RPM is the battery voltage and the gearbox. Lum tried several motors (along with resistors to limit voltage) before settling on this particular 30RPM motor, which spins the ornament at the perfect speed.

The result is a beautiful and completely custom ornament that will blow away those other popsicle stick disappointments on the Christmas tree. If you want to make this ornament yourself, Lum published the files on Cults3D.