Here’s something every 3D printing fan should take to the beach – 3D printed beach tennis paddles that you can fabricate yourself.

3D printing is not only a serious rapid prototyping and digital fabrication technology. It can be fun too. Our 3D printed beach tennis paddles are a good example of that as you can fabricate and enjoy this relatively simple design in just a few steps. Take these paddles to the beach or on a camping trip and they’ll provide tons of fun to you, your friends and family!

Making the 3D printed beach tennis paddles

From the Designfutures repository, you can download free 3D models for making your own leisure equipment. The pack contains three unique paddle designs to choose from – with a butterfly, flower and sky pattern on them. It also includes a file with a handle that needs to be attached to the paddle and a ball that will bounce perfectly when 3D printed with a Flex filament.

You can print the paddles with ABS or PLA. We recommend using 5-10% infill setting so they’re not too heavy, 0.4 mm layer width and 0.2 mm layer height for the best quality of the print. We also didn’t use brim, only a minimal support, and set the power raft to 3 in order to take the full advantage of ZMorph 2.0 SX worktable. You’ll also need three M4 screws to attach a handle to each paddle.

For the ball, you need to use a Flex filament because the Semi-Flex won’t be enough for it to bounce. Set the infill for 8% with a Honeycomb 3D pattern.

Perfect for a fun time with friends

In case you’re wondering about the dimensions of these 3D printed beach tennis paddles, they’re as follows:

Paddle diameter: 208 mm

Paddle thickness: 10 mm

Paddle + handle total height: 330 mm

Ball diameter: 40 mm

Using our source files you can easily scale the design up or down if you want to adjust them for your children.

We already tested these 3D printed beach tennis paddles in a park outside our office and had a real blast! Some of us are already printing additional copies to take on our summer vacations. These paddles are perfect for a casual play with friends or with your kids. Using them give even more pleasure since you know that you made them yourself!

Download the source files, fabricate and try these 3D printed beach tennis paddles during your time off, and remember to send us a photo!