Have you ever wanted to share a song with your friend or maybe a playlist you made? Spotify has made this possible with their custom bar codes that work sort of like a QR code. Simply, scan the code using the Spotify app and it will take you to any song you like; however, there is no easy way to permanently access this code in real life. That is how I came up with the idea to put it on a keychain as this will make it readily available to share with anyone you like.

In this Instructable, I will show you how to 3D print any custom Spotify code you would like as a keychain!

Supplies

Step 1: Finding the Perfect Song

The great thing about Spotify codes is that you are not limited to one song as the code can be linked to a playlist as well. Hop on Spotify and find a song/playlist that is worth earning a place on your keychain. Once you have found it we must copy the link to it.

Simply, hover over the song title with your cursor and right-click on it. A drop down menu will appear where at the bottom is a button labeled share. Upon clicking this, we will be presented with another drop down menu where the first option is the link to your playlist/song. Clicking on this will automatically copy the song to your clipboard.

Step 2: Getting the Custom Code

Now that we have the link to our song/playlist, it is time to turn it into the custom bar code.

Head over to this link to create your code. This process is very straight forward. Paste the link in the text box and click Get Spotify Code. On the right of your screen you will see the code as well as other options. We only need to change one setting and that is the format. In order to import an image like this into Fusion 360, the file must be in SVG format, so click on the format menu and select SVG. You are now free to download the file.

Step 3: Importing Into Fusion 360

At this point, we can import the file into the Fusion 360 to start designing the keychain.

Along the top tool bar you will see an icon labeled insert. Click on the drop down menu below the icon then click insert SVG and select the SVG file we just downloaded.

On its own this model is a pretty good size and could pass for a keychain, but I wanted mine to be a little smaller. To scale the model down highlight the SVG, click on the modify button above, and hit scale. I scaled it down to 90% (.9) as this is about as small as most hobbyist printers can effectively print at.

Step 4: Repairing the SVG

For some reason, the Spotify logo inside the SVG is not completely finished which makes extruding certain parts difficult. I do not know if this problem is specific to me or not, but I figured I should make note of it just in case. To see if you have this same issue, try clicking the top bar inside the Spotify logo; if just that part highlights then you can skip this step, but if almost the entire logo highlights you have the same problem as me. I do not know why Spotify has done this but regardless it is super easy to fix.

Zoom in on the top bar inside the Spotify logo and you will see that it is not continuous. All that must be done to fix this is to draw a line across the gap. In Fusion 360 this can be done by pressing L on your keyboard or by clicking the icon in the tool bar at the top then clicking where you want the two endpoints of the line to be.

For mine, I had to repeat this on the bottom bar of the Spotify logo as well. Do not worry if you have trouble finding the discontinuity in the SVG, I have shown above where it was located on mine to hopefully help you locate the gap in yours.

Step 5: Designing the Main Body

Designing the body for the key chain is just about as easy as it gets within Fusion 360 as it consists of only making a couple of extrusions.

First, we have to go through the tedious process of selecting all the bars that make up the code itself. If you do not know, in Fusion 360 you can select multiple things at once by holding down ctrl while you click, but before extruding we also have to select the bars inside the Spotify logo. Once you have selected everything, simply hit E on your keyboard and insert 1 into the text bar to make the model extrude by 1mm.

Lastly, we have to extrude the backplate. If your SVG sketch has disappeared after the first extrusion then no worry. Head over to the sketch menu on the left side of your screen and select sketch 1. The first part of the backplate we need to extrude is the backdrop of the logo. Like the bar code, select the remainder of the logo and extrude by 2mm. Finally, extrude the main backplate by 3mm. Stepping up the different parts of this design creates a great contrast that will make scanning the keychain easier.

Step 6: Adding the Keychain

Now we will add a small loop at the end for our keychain. If you would prefer to leave the model as is then skip this step as nothing in this step is actually essential to the working of this project.

This step is pretty straight forward if you know how to use Fusion 360, but if not dont worry, like the other steps I will have video above of me creating the keychain if you would like to copy that.

First, create a new sketch on the top of the model. Although before we can actually draw out the keychain we must find the middle of the side. We do not want a wonky keychain! Simply, draw a vertical construction line, starting at the bottom and going to the top. If you do not know, in Fusion360 a construction line is a line that can be used to aid the sketching process, but it is not a part of the sketch itself. Next create another construction line perpendicular to the vertical line that connects the left and right sides. By dragging your cursor along the vertical line your mouse will automatically snap to the middle of the line. Although to be sure you can use the measure feature.

Now we have a staring point for our keychain. Sketch a circle at the end of the horizontal construction line that is 4.2mm in diameter then draw a concentric circle that is 8.2mm wide. We are now ready to finish the sketch and extrude.

Finishing the sketch should create a sort of donut looking shape on our model that we can extrude to get our final design. Click on the outer ring of the donut and extrude to the bottom of the model which should be 3mm down. Lastly, extrude the middle of the donut downward as well. This should cut out a semicircle in the model forming the inner hole.

Now is also a great time to round off the corners, or as professional designer would say fillet the corners. Rounding off the corners is super simple to do. Simply, click on each corner, while holding down ctrl, then press F on your keyboard. I decide to use a fillet of 4, but to be honest, I have no idea what the 4 actually means I just know it looks good.

Step 7: Printing the Model

I printed the keychain using an Ender-3 Pro, the same one linked in supplies, and got pretty good results. Although I'd be willing to bet you could get similar if not better results with any hobby grade 3D printer. I also used the trusty Cura slicer to prepare the model and I'd recommend you do as well as it has never given me any problems.

I will do my best to explain the main settings we should be aware of when printing this model, but if you find it hard to follow here is a great video I used when I was first starting out with Cura by Everyone Engineers!.

Layer Height

For this bar code system to work we have to make sure every bar is printed correctly or we may have trouble scanning the code. One way to increase our printing quality is to decrease the layer height and while this will result in slight increase of time, it is well worth the sacrifice. Most hobby grade 3D printers will be able to achieve a decent quality print with either a layer height of .16mm or .2mm. For reference, I used .16mm layer height.

Travel Speed

Travel speed is another factor that will affect the quality of our print. Again, a higher quality finish will make the code easier to scan. By decreasing the travel speed we can ensure the filament will adhere to the bed better thus increasing the quality. On my Ender 3 Pro, I usually print at 50mm/s which comes out pretty well, but if your not satisfied with the quality I would recommend lowering the speed to around 40-45mm/s.

Adhesion

Adhesion is an import aspect to keep in mind with any print, especially with prints that have a small footprint. Although adhesion is not the most important factor in this print, especially if you have a heated bed, it is worth noting. There are several main types of adhesion, but the one I find most effective is the brim. Essentially, a brim is just an increase in surface area which is very helpful at keeping prints secured.

Infill

The last setting I want to go over is infill. The default infill in Cura is around 20% which just means that only 20% of the print is actually solid. A greater infill will result in a more rigid print, but it will use significantly more filament and time. Since we are just printing a keychain, strength is not that important so using the default 20% is a good bet. Although if you want to increase the rigidity while not using too much extra filament you can increase the infill line multiplier. This just makes the infill lines inside the print wider which from my experience substantially increase the strength of the print.

Step 8: Scanning the Code!

Once it is done printing, all that is left to do is to open up Spotify and scan your code. If you do not know how to scan a Spotify code, all that you must do is open up the app, click on the camera icon in the right hand side of the search bar, and hold the camera above the code. Yes, it's that simple!

Step 9: Conclusion

Congratulations! You have just made your own custom Spotify keychain. This process can be repeated many times over with different songs and playlists if you would like to add some extra flare to your otherwise ordinary keychain. Have any questions? Feel free to leave them below and I will try to respond within a couple of days. As always, happy making!

"Behold, I (Jesus Christ) stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me." - Revelation 3:20 ESV

If you want to read an Instructable that has real value, check this out!

Introduction: How to 3D Print a Custom Spotify Code!