Old Time (before LEGOs) American Plastic Bricks

thingiverse

My childhood home was overflowing with construction toys when my sibling and I were young kids. Coming from an engineering and building-oriented family, this was hardly surprising. I promised myself that once I started messing around with 3D printers, I would recreate one of my favorite toys - the American Plastic Bricks. Any internet search will yield a wealth of information on these toys. Since falling ill a few months ago, I've had a lot of free time on my hands and pulled out my six-inch caliper to meticulously reengineer these bricks. I recreated four out of many bricks in my collection and posted them here. If I have more spare time, I'll start adding more files that make up each set of bricks. Enjoy. Print Settings Printer: Hictop 3pd-18 Rafts: No Supports: Yes Resolution: 0.1 mm Infill: 100% Notes: Due to the thin side walls (1.26 mm +/-) and top (.75 mm +/-), a slower print speed will yield better results. I've been experimenting with different settings on my printer to find what works best. After several failed attempts, I settled on a Print Speed of 5 mm/s. I think a slower rate would work well too. My basic settings are: Print bed 70 degrees, Filament flow 100% using PLA filament. Currently, I'm using Cura version 14.12 for printing and a support setting of everywhere. For unmodified bricks, this works okay, but since I'm no expert on every printer, I'd recommend trying different settings to see what works best for you. The optimal print orientation for these bricks (in my opinion) is pins down on the print bed; feel free to try different orientations to find what works for you. Some filing may be necessary. I've included two files for each brick - a mod file with added reinforcement and a basic brick in its original format. Feel free to experiment with both to see which one works better for you. Post-Printing Never say never... In hindsight, some things might be more challenging to print (with my printer, at least) than others. These blocks were fun to reengineer, but they may not translate easily into 3D printable objects for everyone. Since I don't give up easily, my thinking is that I'll need to make them larger and thicker. However, if you have a better printer or process, please don't hesitate to email me with the results and a picture. Thanks for checking out these bricks!