Materials

The hard cases can be made using ductile materials like:

PLA+
PETG
ABS/ASA
Nylon (probably)

Plain PLA is too brittle and it will crack. Any brand of PLA+ (PLA Pro) will work, like Polymaker or eSun or whatever.

The soft cases can be made from TPU with a hardness of 90A or more. Overture High Speed TPU is the perfect stiffness for a phone case. I print on a Prusa i3 which is direct drive and good for printing flexibles, but this “high speed” TPU also works in bowden printers like the Ender 3.

Dehydrating filament improves print quality for all types of filament.

Slicer settings and tuning

Print quality is essential for Joy-Con and Junglecat rails. Tune the linear advance setting to prevent blobbing on the thin edge of the rails. Tune the overhangs to prevent sagging inside the rails.

I use a 0.4mm nozzle. For a quick test fit, set the layer heigh to 0.20-0.30mm. For a quality finish, set the layer height to 0.10mm-0.15mm or try variable layer thickness. Use at least 3 perimeters so that the case walls are solid.

Variable extrusion width will make the rails stronger and more accurate. Cura 5.0 and PrusaSlicer 2.5 both have this feature. Some companies reskin Cura as their own slicer - use the latest version of regular Cura instead.

Increasing the extrusion width a little may help print the thin rails in fewer stronger lines. Maybe. May reduce visual quality.

To reduce blobs on TPU cases, I enable “Avoid Crossing Perimeters” in PrusaSlicer.

If you can print a pretty Benchy then you can print this phone case. This example is more than good enough - the corners are sharp and the overhangs barely droop.

Separate clamps before printing - Junglecat

The clamps are made of two parts. They must be separated before printing.

Import the model into your slicer. Split the model and separate the 2 halves. Enable supports on the build plate. Don’t support the inside of the sliding slot.

Separate clamps before printing - Joycon

The Joy-Con rails have manual supports. In your slicer there should be 4 objects. Move them along with the clamp.

Manual horizontal supports

Manual supports are used for some overhangs to prevent sagging. Cut away with a craft knife or sharp box cutter.

Phone overhang support

Junglecat rail support

Joycon rail support

There is a “support airgap” to help separate these rail supports … but it only works well on the top line. You must cut the Junglecat and Joycon rails by hand. Good luck!

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