Easy Print Kids Building Toys

thingiverse

There's a bin of toys in my son's classroom that every kid loves to play with the most. His teacher says these are both their absolute favorites and super educational. I have no idea what they're called or where to buy them, so I borrowed some and reverse engineered them. They're incredibly easy to print, which is why the kids get confused about whether an original toy or a printed one is real. This makes it easy to get a lot of playtime out of 3D prints if you just print a whole bucket full. Multiple colors make for the best effect! I have some ideas on how to make these even better, and in time, I'll remix them with more geometric figures than they originally had. Print Settings Printer Brand: RepRap Printer: Geetech Prusa i3b Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution: 0.25mm Infill: No Notes: Just print it! I used PLA, and it worked amazingly well. A glue stick on the bed (not heated) made for a great bond, with zero curling. I used a 0.25mm layer height and a 0.5mm first layer. These were some of the easiest things I've ever printed. I used Slic3r, and some prints came out a bit stiff to connect, so I adjusted the height of the model. If you have any issues with them being too loose or too tight, just scale the objects up or down in the Z-axis only, and this will give you perfect fits. Post-Printing The only thing I needed to do was use a knife to remove the odd whisker or two, and wash them in water to remove any glue residue. How I Designed This I borrowed one of each design from the classroom, and using digital calipers, I drew them in the computer. Overview and Background Free play time, creativity. Identifying shapes and colors. Lesson Plan and Activity Free play time, creativity. Identifying shapes and colors. Build awesome things, and create stories around them. Keep in mind that they need to be taken apart before being put away, or they'll never fit back in the bucket. A great activity to reinforce kids to clean up after playtime. Materials Needed Print and play! You'll need a 3D printer and some filament. PLA works great, others probably do too. You'll probably need a bin or bucket for storage.