Articulated Kitty Wand w/Cute Fish and Mice Links

Hi there! If you download, print, or collect this free model, I would really appreciate it if you take the time to click the like <3 button as I put a ton of time, experimentation, and filament into developing, testing, and posting these- and your support helps me continue to do so!

If your cat(s) is/are anything like mine, you can get them all sorts of fancy automated toys to try and entertain them (so you can try to get things done) but eventually they bore of those and still prefer a human-powered toy…

Hence I created this human-powered wand toy which has been tested and approved by my two furry quality control overlords. It has a stick base with a little paw handle and adorable articulated mice and fish links that can be printed-in-place as chain strands, or printed as individual links to fully customize the length to your liking and minimum safety distance. Get creative with your filament colors and add some feather attachments from your preferred pet supply place to the ring connectors at the end of the chain- or leave off the ring link and let your kitty chase the mice and fish themselves.

IMPORTANT PRINT INFO:

As these are toys meant to actively engage with our sharp-ended, pouncing feline friends, I recommend the following when printing for the best results:

• Use 100% infill for added strength- this is especially important for the links that have connectors- you can print everything at 5 or 10% infill, but the links may not survive intact during a particularly vigorous and vicious attack. 
• Use 10mm brims and tree supports on all objects with the following settings to help make the supports more easy to remove:
• Set Top and Bottom Interface Layers to 1
• Set support/object xy distance to .65

While I did a bit of trial and error to ensure the chains can be printed in place, there may still be one or two that sometimes need a little help to loosen the connections if your printer adds support inside them. I highly recommend first trying to apply gentle but firm pressure to each link to wiggle and twist it loose- but if you hit too much resistance don’t keep trying by hand alone or you may end up bending the mice/fish to the point where they disconnect/break them from the ball connectors. Instead, swap to using some needle-nose pliers to firmly hold the “nose” cylinder of the fish/mice (right between the nose and the ball) while you gently twist/wiggle the female end of the connector up and down and side to side. Once it loosens, twist back and forth and spin several times to dislodge any material that may have been inside. 

Alternatively, you can print the links individually and then assemble them to the length of your choice. I recommend printing the individual links horizontally to avoid the likelihood of the printer knocking one or more of them over- but you can try printing them upright/vertically with the connectors on the plate if you experiment with adding a lot of supports. During my development and testing runs, I printed some of the first prototypes upright, but out of three plates I ran, two of them resulted in a couple lost mice or fish each despite using tree supports and 10mm brims. 

REMOVING SUPPORTS:

Be extra careful when removing the supports from the connector cups- unfortunately if we don’t allow supports in the connectors they don’t tend to turn out well when printing horizontally. 

After removing the supports, I also did a little bit of extra sanding to remove any edges left over to help prevent snagging on fabrics or carpets and for the comfort of kitty (and human) paws.

As these are toys meant to actively engage with our sharp-ended, pouncing feline friends, I recommend the following when printing for the best results:

• Use 100% infill for added strength- this is especially important for the links that have connectors- you can print everything at 5 or 10% infill, but the links may not survive intact during a particularly vigorous and vicious attack. 
• Use 10mm brims and tree supports on all objects with the following settings to help make the supports more easy to remove:
• Set Top and Bottom Interface Layers to 1
• Set support/object xy distance to .65

While I did a bit of trial and error to ensure the chains can be printed in place, there may still be one or two that sometimes need a little help to loosen the connections if your printer adds support inside them. I highly recommend first trying to apply gentle but firm pressure to each link to wiggle and twist it loose- but if you hit too much resistance don’t keep trying by hand alone or you may end up bending the mice/fish to the point where they disconnect/break them from the ball connectors. Instead, swap to using some needle-nose pliers to firmly hold the “nose” cylinder of the fish/mice (right between the nose and the ball) while you gently twist/wiggle the female end of the connector up and down and side to side. Once it loosens, twist back and forth and spin several times to dislodge any material that may have been inside. 

Alternatively, you can print the links individually and then assemble them to the length of your choice. I recommend printing the individual links horizontally to avoid the likelihood of the printer knocking one or more of them over- but you can try printing them upright/vertically with the connectors on the plate if you experiment with adding a lot of supports. During my development and testing runs, I printed some of the first prototypes upright, but out of three plates I ran, two of them resulted in a couple lost mice or fish each despite using tree supports and 10mm brims.