Upcycling is a creative process of taking unwanted things (waste material or some old broken stuff) and giving them a new purpose. In a way, it’s even more eco-friendly than recycling, and certainly more fun. 3D printing is a very convenient tool for upcycling, as you can use printed parts to fix, adjust, and combine upcycled items into a new design.
Now with the terminology sorted out, please let us proudly announce the theme of our sixth PrusaPrinters.org designer contest:
Upcycling empty Prusament spools and Prusament cardboard boxes
Have you been piling up empty spools and boxes because it feels wrong to just throw them away? Now you can use them as a resource to create something cool and new. And perhaps even win the Original Prusa i3 MK3S kit or new Prusament spools… which you can later upcycle again! Is this Perpetuum mobile or what? 🙂
As for the purpose of your design, anything goes: toys, games, educative items, practical household items, or purely aesthetic stuff, like sculptures, etc. Just make sure you use original Prusament boxes and/or spools – either their plastic sides or the cardboard barrel.
Contest evaluation and prizes
We will pick three winners:
1st place – 3D printer Original Prusa i3 MK3S (kit)
and 5 other designers, whose prints will get the highest number of likes, will get a $50 e-shop voucher. (The deadline for counting likes is 48 hours after the end of the competition.)
Each of these models will be awarded a lifetime “Featured print” badge and they will be featured on the PrusaPrinters main page.
Wait a minute…
…did you say “likes”?
Yes ❤, you read that right! We have finally implemented the long-awaited feature for giving likes to prints and collections! It’s a quick and easy way to let the author know that you like his work. Feedback is very important for authors and it also motivates them to create more amazing models. You can find the list of your liked prints and collections in your profile in the Collections tab. Liked prints are located in a private collection called “Liked prints” and the collection in the “Liked collections” section.
Contest entry submit deadline: 26th July 2020 23:59 UTC
The best models will be chosen by a jury consisting of members of the Prusa Polymers team.
The main evaluation criteria are:
- Design quality (either its aesthetic, practical or fun value – depends on the purpose of the model)
- Printability – a clever print orientation or splitting the object to multiple parts to minimize the amount of supports.
- Originality
- Thorough instructions – especially if the design isn’t completely self-explanatory and it has to be assembled from several parts, etc. Make sure it’s user-friendly and easy to follow.
Winners will be contacted via e-mail. The results will be also published until approximately July 31st on our blog.
Inspiration
If you need some inspiration, check these cool examples below. For more information, please visit our blog and read our article about Prusament spools reuse ideas.
How to enter the contest?
Entering the contest is easy – follow the steps below:
- Design a 3D model that contains some parts of Prusament spools or boxes. The model must be printable on an FFF printer (any brand). This also means it’s not necessary to own a 3D printer – just keep in mind the limits of the technology.
- Upload and publish the model to PrusaPrinters.org. The upload must contain:
- model uploaded as .3MF or .STL (print file is optional but useful)
- photo or render of the model (or both in the ideal case)
- model description
- Submit the model in the contest. The procedure is the same as adding a print into a collection. Open the model page and click the Collections icon. The first one will be the name of the contest – “Upcycling Prusament”. Tick the box and you’re done.
- (Optional) Share the model online (on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest). Add #Prusament hashtag and increase the popularity of your model!
Terms and conditions
- The contest runs from June 23rd, 2020 till July 26th, 2020 23:59 UTC.
- You can enter with as many unique models as you like to increase your chances of winning.
- The model has to be made of 3D printed parts and at least one part of Prusament spool or box.
- We reserve the right to terminate or change the terms of the competition at any time. In the event of a violation of the terms of the competition or attempted fraudulent conduct, the competitor will be excluded from the competition.
We are looking forward to your models!
Happy designing!
So the model that we submit must have a 3D printed component to it?
Yes 😉 I think, that makes sense if it is designer competition 😉
What? I can’t just pour dirt over it and call it a planter? Booo! 😉
Does the model have to be published during the contest duration or can we enter with previous published models?
You can also submit your older models in this competition.
“You can find the list of your liked prints and collections in your profile in the Collections tab”
wait, there are collections in here? how can I find it?
one of the thing I wish to see here that I really liked in thingiverse is to get inspired on what to print from other peoples
Ok, found it in a print, I can see collections that have that print
I really think you should have a tab to browse popular collections, it can be wonderful way to browse the site
What are the dimensions of the Prusament box? I’ve never had one before so I don’t know the measurements.
Can we use any filament rolls, or do have to be Prusament specifically? I don’t have any empty Prusament rolls yet, but have some other branded ones.
They told me this; “For participate in the contest you have to use original Prusament boxes and/or spools – either their plastic sides or the cardboard barrel. The contest it is intended to give our Prusament spools/boxes an alternative use and, therefore, a second life.” I will buy 3mm thick, 100mm external diameter cardboard and use it because I’m live in Turkey and Prusament is too expensive. 5 units, prusament for $ 221 (including tax and shipping) but in Turkey, the local manufacturers sells 5-filament $ 75.
Yes indeed, i also live in turkey, and even if you win the contest and you get something sent to Turkey WITHOUT PAYING ANYTHING, the customs control will make you pay the taxes for that… Anyhow I got my prusament when I bougth the MK3S and could never buy more again due to price difference… But prusament really makes the quality difference tough…
is it possible to get the dimensions for the spools? as i am yet to finish my first of your spools and i am reluctant to take it apart when it has a few hundred metres left 🙂
Is it possible to get the stl of the spool? and the box? Is it also possible to get one empty spool to build the real proto?
i agree but they shouldn’t just give out empty spools, an stl/3mf and a step file will be fine
https://www.prusaprinters.org/cs/prints/405-prusament-spool-simplified-3d-model
https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/405/stls/2713_8fe4d7bb-5071-422a-9b2d-806021242d78/14_014_prusament_simple.stl
Just curious, I realize the current state of filament delivered on spools and ease of use with a Prusa printer, but why putting all this intellectual effort into uncycling when perhaps a better pursuit would be to think about how to eliminate the spool altogether? Otherwise known as a spoolless or bobbinless conical winding coil, such a configuration would save resources and even perhaps reduce shipping costs. Often times when buying string for the garden, it pulls out of the center of the ball which has no core. Granted, this would likely require reinventing the Prusa Box. The box might end up to be smaller with a plastic liner for sealing and simply hang the box above the printer without the need for any rotation of a spool to pull and feed the filament to the printer. Depending on the algorithm used to wind the filament, a machine to wind it may require an inner flange of sort. Just a thought to lower the impact on our planet while reducing costs at the same time.
Hi guys! Just curious, when will the results be announced?
I thought they were going to be announced on the 31st (today), but no results yet 🙁 Anxious.
it must be a hard contest to judge
I’m sure it is. They’re probably not done printing all the parts yet lol. I keep waiting for Prusa Live #6 to pop up on Youtube. I bet they announce the winners there.
They print out the parts? Dang. I hope I wasnt missing anything lol
One of the criteria was printability or creativity of the print. So I would think they’re going to print all the contenders. Plus, another criteria was the assembly instructions, so they’d have to print everything and buy all the extra hardware everyone specified. Gotta be a sizable task w/ almost 200 entries.
Well, my instructions are id say 70% clear. This contest, i did a lot of “firsts” for me. Which I clearly state in my print. SO, I hope they take that into account. It took me 7 days to print. lol
You can still edit your submission. They’ve probably already assembled everything but it sounds like a big project so you never know. I went in and updated my instructions yesterday. At least it will be clearer for anyone that downloads it in the future, even it it’s too late for the contest.
If you want to know, I created the “prusa train”. give it a look. it took a ton of cad work to build. My Cad level is about a level 5, and the level of the train is about a 30. lol
I did the “Prusa-ganizer” and the “Spool-Ship Enterprise”.
I should have taken more time on the Enterprise though. I could have added windows and gun turrets or something. I rushed it, thinking someone else was going to beat me to the idea.
So i guess we are all still waiting for that post 🙂 In the live they anounced it tough… just taking more to write it down 😀
This should be a permanent contest, as long as prusa delivers these non recyclable spools. I’ve got way too much of them. Why not creating them from PET, so they could be recycled with normal bottles?