Here's my submission for pattywac's holiday-themed competition, a festive nutcracker. I'm not sure if you can actually crack any nuts with this though, but feel free to customize it.

I had to print this out a few times due to silly overhand errors I made, and also had to split down some parts into sub-parts to minimize "catastrophic" failures in case things go wrong at the tail end of a 1 hour + print. I kind of ran out of time to flesh out the design, but you can fit it on the Cupcake's build platform and use the z-axis to push the lever down. Also, he still needs a hat, arms and a printed mustache...

I've also included my sketchup design files. This was the first time I designed anything in sketchup to be printed, and I'm surprised it worked out well (outside of the silly overhang things I thought would work) Hope you all enjoy it!

Things needed: 2 x M5 bolts (I used the ones from my old extruder) 2 x short M3 bolts 2 x Bottle Caps Hot Glue Gun Dremel or sandpaper (optional)

1. Print out all the parts. If you have other colours go crazy!

2. Slide the left and right body pieces into the core through the top holes, you might have to sand the top stubs on the core a little to get a fit if your part extruded too much

3. Insert the jaw piece into the middle of the core and secure it on both sides with the M5 bolts. The bolts should end up flush with the body, and your jaw should be able to move easily

4. Glue one bottle cap each into the round circles on the lower head piece and the jaw

5. Glue the top head piece to the bottom piece

6. Decorate with a silly expression (I used a sharpie)!

7. (Optional) Place on cooled build platform in Makerbot and put mouth in open position (you might want to use a binder clip to hold it in place). Position crushable in mouth, move Z-axis, fire up repG and hit -ve on the Z axis!