I am 3D printing a bunch of things and I needed a way to show the size of the finished projects. I was thinking to myself what is a good way to show the size without using a ugle tape measure. Then it all came to me when I was at the grocery store yesterday and 1 of the items my wife wanted was Bananas.

It was at that moment that I remembered I had 3D printers and I could print my own Banana to show the scale of objects!

And I found this BEAUTY of a banana!

History of 'Banana For Scale'

The fasination around the phrase "Banana For Scale" started all the way back in 2005. You can read the full history here: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/banana-for-scale

But the short version is that on March 30th, 2005 someone posted a TV for sale and didn't know the size of the TV so they put a Banana on the TV to show the relevant size of the TV given the fact that Banana's are generally the same size.

It didn't necessarily go viral yet. Then on August 30th, 2010 someone posted a safe on Facebook and also included a Banana to show the relative size of the safe.

Then that same person created a infographic 2 years later on August 24th 2012 explaining the acceptable use cases to use a Banana to show the scale of another object.

And yes there were other accounts of people using various objects to show measurements or to give a comparison. Guitar's and Double Beds have been used early on but didn't catch on like the Banana.

My Hardware

While I have two 3D printers (yes I know that is a humble flex on the surface.... but I bought both 3D printers with Crypto I earned online and the only reason my wife allowed me to buy the 2nd way bigger 3D printer is because I told her that I would sell my 1st 3D printer afterwards.... oops) I use them for different purposes. And this entire print was printed on my Creality K2 Plus printer.

Well here is a nice little infograph that shows my two 3D printers and the differences between them.

I will note that on the Creality K2 Plus, I only have a 0.4mm nozzle as that is what came with it. While on my FlashForge Adventure 5M Pro, I have the 0.25mm, 0.4mm and 0.6mm nozzles. So if I want to print with ABS (which requires a 0.6mm nozzle due to flow rate) or if I want to print really fine detail (which the 0.25mm nozzle allows way smaller line heights so better fine details) I will use my FlashForge printer. But for everything else I will use my Creality because it just has a bigger Print Bed so it's easier to use 1 as the main printer and just use the FlashForge for specific individual 1 color prints that need fine detail.

Also, I only have 1 CFS system for the Creality K2 Plus, so I can only print in 4 colors at once. Which given how much 'poop' multi color printing creates, that is fine for me.

Which Banana to Print?

There are more Banana models then I could look through.....

The one I decided on was originally created by the user 'Soap Warrior' which can be found here: #profileId-307383" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://makerworld.com/en/models/405549-banana-longsword-banananana-knife#profileId-307383

It was first uploaded on March 31st, 2024. There have been a ton of remixes since then and here is the remix that I am printing (links to various websites depending on which one you prefer to use)

https://www.printables.com/model/943397-banana-katana-remix-with-display-stand/comments

https://www.crealitycloud.com/model-detail/banana-katana-remix?source=5&profileId=6920df8dc20096ed429effc5

I also came upon this cool stand to showcase it as well: #profileId-949792" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://makerworld.com/en/models/976797-stand-for-banana-katana#profileId-949792

I am going to print both stands because I may end up making 2 of these babies.

My Banana Katana

Since I already had Yellow, White and Black PLA I got right into printing this bad boy! First we get all the stl files downloaded and then move each file that needs to be printed in yellow on 1 print plate!

Then we get the white parts ready to print!

And then we get the Black Stands (the image is only of 1 stand but I printed both at once)

If you care about the cost to make this item. Here is the filament I used (no poop since I printed 1 color at a time).

PLA Color	Amount Used	Current $$ of Filament	Normal $$ of Filament
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/cherokee4life/AK7y1s6pXqsWXnCBXnCiVa8CkPdmbyQHhoqV4Hm16rbKbLtUkjdPDJJebWdnD1U.png	184.53 grams	$2.21	$3.32
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/cherokee4life/AK3eLSfmGhK1CthYD8LJrwJZ2Aagg77fFgkqeYPd18cYm5wDYdTtRoYo5iE4k6X.png	76.17 grams	$0.91	$1.37
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/cherokee4life/AK55qukxSKTM9U8wg1X78W2t4v35bWGGMd5VRrrcS18hzwqrqAqmuxcURHgFaVS.png	25.67 grams	$0.30	$0.46
Totals:	286.37 grams	$3.42	$5.15

Who Doesn't Like Timelapse Videos?

The outside Banana parts!

And here are the White Blade parts being printed. And yes... the piece in the back, which is the tip of the blade failed miserably. So I reprinted just that part at 100% infill and it printed fine at slower speeds.

And here are the 2 Black stands!

The Finished Product!

Here she is in all her extended glory (well almost fully extended because the white blade parts can be VERY snug when fully extended and almost impossible to get it back into its Banana case. So I just extend it like 75% of the full way)

And because Countess Sinesh is just a real %#$@^$# sometimes.. It's time to teach her a lesson!

I hoped you liked me weird 3D printer type post today. I am tying to get back into posting more actual content type posts. I am trying to shy away from just posting Actifit Daily Step posts, or only posting Splinterlands posts. I want to bring value (hopefully) to Hive and me posting about my hobbies and what I am doing is the start to that (I hope).

I have a Hive Witness Node (@witness4all) that I run and I am trying to move my way up the ranks. So if you are bored and want to vote click the image below. If you like what I post and want to support than click the image below. If you don't want to vote for me... that's cool too.

Also, if you want to hang out in a Discord Server and talk to a small group (we are growing slowly) of Hivers... then come on by!

@witness4all" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">

Banana For Scale - A necessary tool for 3D printing!