Kumiko lantern · parametric

Design your lamp, take the STLs

A four-panel kumiko lantern with sliding mortise-and-groove joints. Every part prints flat with no supports, and nothing needs glue. Change anything below and the joinery re-solves itself.

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Asanoha
Meaning

Print list

PartQtySize (mm) VolumePlate

Settings, assembly, and the bit that matters

Slicer

Nozzle / layer
0.4 / 0.2 mm
Wall loops
4
Infill
15% gyroid
Supports
none
Brim
5 mm on posts & panels

Assembly

  1. Drop the four posts into the corner sockets in the base.
  2. Slide each panel down between two posts, lattice facing out.
  3. Fit the cap over the post tops and panel top edges.

Friction fit throughout, with an optional reusable snap for the four feet and four screw-head finial caps. The cap lifts off to change the bulb — unless you fit the optional cap screws, which means removing four finials first. If panels bind, raise the slot clearance and reprint only the posts.

Diffuser

The back of each panel is rebated and open at the top edge. Slide in shoji paper or vellum before fitting the cap.

Diffuser sheets
Rebate depth

Heat

LED bulb only, 9 W maximum. A filament or halogen bulb will soften and deform this lamp — PLA starts to go around 60 °C.

Print the base and cap in PETG; they sit nearest the bulb. PLA is fine for panels and posts. Mains wiring is your responsibility.

Fully manifold files

The base, posts and adapter ring come out of here as single watertight shells, and their volumes match the Python generator exactly.

The panel lattice and cap grille are built as one closed solid per slat, overlapping where slats cross. Resolving those crossings into a single shell needs a CSG engine the browser does not have; doing it by decomposition instead costs eighteen times the triangles and takes seconds per change. There are no open edges anywhere — every edge is shared by an even number of faces — but the shared ones sit on four faces rather than two, so a strict manifold check calls these non-manifold and your slicer may offer to repair them. Overlapping closed solids are unioned correctly, so they print as drawn.

For strictly manifold files, the Python generator in this repo builds the same lamp with real CSG:

One caveat on the numbers above: the volume shown for the panel and cap counts overlapping slats twice, so it reads a few percent high. The other three parts are exact.

Nothing here has been test printed. Shrinkage and your printer's dimensional accuracy are the remaining unknowns, and the joints are where they would show.