Jack-O-Cauldron

The "Jack-o-Cauldron" Tea Light 🎃🔮

My daughters love fall, and Halloween most of all, so I am building them a set of Halloween pieces for the 2026 season. The Bubbling Brew Cauldron Lamp was the first and the Jack-o-Lantern was the second. This one is what happens when you cross them.

It is a cauldron with a jack-o-lantern face carved into it and the brew bubbling over the top. Three parts, no hardware, and the whole set prints in under three hours for about a dollar of filament.

🟩 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗠𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗦 𝗜𝗧 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞

▸ 𝗜𝘁 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗔𝘁 𝗢𝗻𝗰𝗲 — Drop a flickering LED tea light in the pot and the light comes out through the carved face and up through a disc of domed bubbles resting in the mouth. A jack-o-lantern glows through its face. A cauldron lamp glows through its brew. This one does both.

▸ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗳𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝘃𝘆 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 — Same lesson the Jack-o-Lantern taught me: without one, the light stays concentrated at the flickering tip of the tea light and everything around it stays dark. This diffuser is a vase-mode cone — one wall thick, 29 minutes, 4.71 g. Thicker dampens the flicker; one line evens the light out and still lets it dance.

▸ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝘄 𝗜𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗢𝗻𝗲, 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗱 — The bubble insert is the same generated bubble field as the full-size Bubbling Brew Cauldron Lamp, printed at 45%. Same seed, so the two match if you stand them side by side. 60.5 mm across, 6 mm thick, 3.62 g.

▸ 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀, 𝗡𝗼 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 — Body, diffuser, insert. Nothing to glue, no screws, no magnets. The tea light sits in the bottom of the pot, the cone goes over it, and the bubble disc rests in the mouth.

▸ 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹, 𝗙𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗽 — 75 mm across and just under 55 mm tall assembled. All three parts together are 30.80 g, 2 h 41 m and about $0.92 of PLA. The full-size Cauldron Lamp is 315 g and 21 h 31 m. This is the same idea you can print in an evening, and cheap enough to make a row of them down a mantel.

🟩 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 (𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗗 𝗦𝗘𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗬)

Built around a standard flickering LED tea light — the battery kind sold in bags of a dozen. No cord, no USB, nothing to hide, and no hardware included in the download.

The printed diffuser is 57 mm across and 41.8 mm tall and sits over the light. If your tea light does not fit inside it, tell me and I will size a version that does.

🟩 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗧 𝗦𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦

Three separate 3MF files, one per part, each already set up:

▸ 𝗕𝗼𝗱𝘆 — Tree supports required · 0.23 mm support Z gap · 3 support interface layers · 5 mm brim · 0.12 mm layer height · 3 walls · 9% gyroid

▸ 𝗗𝗶𝗳𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿 — VASE MODE · one wall · 0.2 mm layer height · no supports · its own plate

▸ 𝗕𝘂𝗯𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘁 — No supports · 0.08 mm layer height · 2 walls · 8% lightning infill · concentric top surface

Only the body needs supports. Turn them off for the diffuser and the insert — neither part wants them, whatever the switch says when the project opens.

That support Z gap and interface count are the two settings that matter on the body. They are the same pair that stopped the Jack-o-Lantern snapping its teeth off during support removal, and they are already saved in the project.

The fine layer height and concentric top surface on the insert are what keep the bubble domes smooth. Coarser layers terrace them visibly, so it is worth the extra time. Print the insert in white or a light translucent PLA so it diffuses properly.

PLA · 220°C nozzle · 60°C bed · sliced on a Creality Hi with a 0.4 mm nozzle

🟩 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗡𝗨𝗠𝗕𝗘𝗥𝗦

▸ 𝗕𝗼𝗱𝘆: 𝟳𝟱 × 𝟳𝟭 × 𝟱𝟬 𝗺𝗺 — 1h 43m and 22.47 g

▸ 𝗗𝗶𝗳𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿: 𝟱𝟳 𝗺𝗺 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 × 𝟰𝟭.𝟴 𝗺𝗺 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹 — 29m 30s and 4.71 g

▸ 𝗕𝘂𝗯𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘁: 𝟲𝟬.𝟱 𝗺𝗺 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 × 𝟲 𝗺𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗸 — 28m 41s and 3.62 g

▸ All three parts: 2h 41m and 30.80 g

▸ Assembled: 75 mm across × just under 55 mm tall

🟩 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗔𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗬

▸ 𝗕𝘂𝗯𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝘄 𝗖𝗮𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗮𝗺𝗽 — The same brew at full size: a lift-off lid, a color-changing RGB puck light, and a 134.5 mm disc of domed bubbles glowing from underneath.

▸ 𝗝𝗮𝗰𝗸-𝗼-𝗟𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗧𝗲𝗮 𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 — The face that started it. One color or two, its own vase-mode diffuser, and the whole pumpkin lights up edge to edge.