Printing Lumia Cases

My printed case, and Joanna. The cutout for the camera fits absolutely perfectly.

BrianT popped a comment on the blog last week about the Lumia printing templates that Nokia have just released. They can be used with a 3D printer to allow you to print your own shells for the Lumia 820 phone. You get designs for the shell plus the buttons. You can download them here. What with having a Nokia 820 and a 3D printer to play with I thought I’d had a go. Initial results weren’t successful because the back section is very slightly curved in the original Nokia designs, which for a 3D printer like mine is impossible to print (although other kinds of printers will do this kind of shape). However, a chap on Thingiverse has created a Makerbot version of the case with a flat bottom. This prints a treat, as you can see above. The only thing I don’t like is the Makerbot logo, what with me having an Ultimaker printer and all.  But I can fix that by spending a few minutes in FreeCAD. In fact I can put whatever I like on there. In any colour I like.

The shell snaps onto the phone just like a “proper” one and I was very surprised to find that even the tiny buttons fit well and work OK, although I’m going to have to do a bit of trimming to make them move smoothly.

Remember that the lack of a 3D printer doesn’t stop you from making your own unique phone cases. Places like Sculpteo will take your designs and print them, including full colour if you really want it. Kudos to Nokia for making these drawings available for anyone to use.