Jack-O-Lantern

The "Lights Up Edge to Edge" Jack-o-Lantern 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. A jack-o-lantern had to be next — it is the icon of the holiday, and sculpting an organic pumpkin with a stem that actually looks like a stem was a real challenge in SolidWorks.

It took three prototypes and two diffusers to get right.

🟩 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗠𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗦 𝗜𝗧 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞

▸ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝘂𝗺𝗽𝗸𝗶𝗻 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀 — Drop in a flickering LED tea light and the entire body lights up, not just the eyes. That took a printed diffuser; without one the light stays concentrated at the flame tip and the pumpkin stays dark.

▸ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗳𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗜𝘀 𝗩𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲 — One wall, 23 minutes, 3.21 g. My first diffuser was too thick and dampened the light. This one evens it out and still lets the flicker come through.

▸ 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝘄𝗼 — The two-color plate prints a brown stem against an orange body. The single-color plate is the same lantern for 43.55 g instead of 155.51 g, because on my printer 156 filament changes purge 101 g of it into waste. Both plates are included — pick the one that suits your machine.

▸ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗱 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘀 𝗢𝗳𝗳 — The lid seats into the top and continues the pumpkin's curve, so you can reach the tea light and its battery without turning the lantern over.

▸ 𝗦𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗟𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗲𝗮 𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 — The printed diffuser is 40 mm across and 41.8 mm tall. If your tea light does not fit inside it, tell me and I will size a version that does.

🟩 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗧 𝗦𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦

Supports required under the mouth · 0.1 mm layer height · 4 walls · 9% gyroid · PLA

Two support settings matter more than anything else here: set the support Z gap to 0.24 mm and the support interface to 3 top layers. My second prototype snapped its teeth off during support removal at the defaults, and those two changes are what fixed it.

The diffuser prints on its own plate in vase mode.

Finished size: 76 × 76 × 63 mm assembled. Body 48 mm tall, lid 53 mm across.

🟩 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗔𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗬

▸ 𝗕𝘂𝗯𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝘄 𝗖𝗮𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗮𝗺𝗽 — The same trick at a bigger scale: a lift-off lid, a color-changing puck light, and a printed disc of domed bubbles that glows from underneath.

Happy Halloween 🎃