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Waterfall incense burner

A real mountain as a backflow incense burner. The cone sits at the summit, and its smoke pours out of the mountain, runs down the real valleys and pools like mist in a basin round the foot. Cast it in plaster or concrete in a mould you print, or print it with a steel insert.

Pick a mountain

Drag and zoom the map to frame the mountain. The cone's seat goes on the highest ground near the middle (the dot), and the basin goes all round the circle.

How you will make it

You print a mould and a pin, and cast the burner in a material that cannot burn or melt. The pin makes the smoke hole and pulls out once the cast has set.

Cast in

A burning cone is several hundred degrees. PLA and PETG must never touch it. Print in ASA, polycarbonate or nylon, and the cone always stands on a steel insert with an air gap under it, never on the plastic. For a burner you will use often, cast it.

The cone stands on

Colour

The smoke

Waterfalls (smoke exits)

A cast burner has one: the pin for each smoke hole must pull out in a straight line. Printed burners can have up to three.

It flows towards Valley channels

Rounded grooves down the real valleys, the way water would run. Their floors only ever go downhill (at least 1 in 10), with walls each side, so the smoke keeps flowing and does not spill. Deeper walls keep it in better in a draught.

The model

Size across

Mountain height

Base

A name plate at the front

Fire safety

Never leave a burning cone alone, and keep it away from children, pets, curtains and anything that can catch fire.
Stand the burner on a heat-proof surface (a tile, stone or metal tray), never on wood, cloth or plastic.
Burn incense in a well-ventilated room, and open a window afterwards.
The cone and its ash stay hot after the smoke stops. Use backflow cones only: no sticks, no charcoal.

Download

Instruction card

Two pages to keep with the burner or give with it: how it works, the fire safety rules, and how to cast or print it, with the amounts for this one.

Free for personal use, and for selling up to $5,000 a year with a TerraPrinter credit. Bigger sellers need a commercial license. Keep the data credits. License

How the burner works

Smoke that flows down

A backflow cone has a hollow core. Lit at the tip, its smoke cools on the way down inside the cone and sinks out of the hole in its bottom. It is heavier than the air round it, so it pours down through the hole and then down whatever slopes it finds, like water.

The seat and the smoke hole

The cone stands on a flat seat at the summit, right over a 4 mm smoke hole. The hole runs straight down inside the mountain and comes out low down at the head of a real valley, so the smoke falls out of the rock like a waterfall. It leans at least 45° on a printed burner, so it prints without supports.

The real valleys

The channels follow the way water runs down the real mountain, worked out from elevation data and the streams on the map. They are smoothed into rounded grooves about 7 mm wide whose floors only ever go downhill, with walls high enough each side and rounded edges, so nothing catches the smoke or makes a draught.

The basin

At the foot the channels run into a basin inside a raised rim, all the way round, where the smoke spreads out and pools like morning mist. Real lakes from the map sink a little to catch it too, and in a fjord the sea becomes part of the basin.

Cast it: fire-proof

Plaster, jesmonite and concrete do not burn or melt, so a cast burner is the safe choice. Print the mould and the pin in any filament, pour, and pull the pin out when it has set. The sides lean in 3° and no slope is steeper than 78°, so the cast lets go of the mould cleanly.

Or print it, carefully

Plastic must never touch a burning cone. The printed burner has a recess for a steel washer or a tealight cup, standing on three small pads with an air gap under it, so the cone and its ash never touch the plastic. Use ASA, polycarbonate or nylon, never PLA or PETG, and never leave it burning alone.

Elevation: Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (© DLR e.V. & Airbus) and Mapzen Terrain Tiles on AWS (SRTM, GMTED2010, ETOPO1 and others). Lakes and streams © OpenStreetMap contributors. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors, © CARTO. More for your home: landscape planters, molds of real places, lithophane lamps, open the TerraPrinter app or see more 3D map gift ideas.