ToyRap

thingiverse

I designed this toy 3D printer as a gift for my daughter last Christmas. It could be the perfect present to encourage a young future maker, or it might make a great desk toy for an adult who can't wait to get home and use their own printer. It was meant to be a model of our printer that my daughter and I built using the wonderful parametric Mendel90 plans shared by Nophead. At first, I thought I would just customize the config files of the actual Mendel90 to generate STLs for a 1/3 scale model. Then, I thought I could find STLS to make models of the vitamins like the motors. However, things started to go wrong when scaled that far. Thin areas of parts became too thin, screw holes overlapped and screws became impractically tiny. Instead, I ended up creating a whole new set of parts from scratch and with a bit of artistic license. At this point, my daughter has had her ToyRap for almost a year, but I'm not finished refining the design yet. I intend to come back soon and write a full set of instructions as well as add more customizability. In the meantime, the file bom.html contains a bill of materials including both printed parts and vitamins. Even without a formal set of directions, this and the pictures should be enough for someone who is determined or already has some experience. If you want to go beyond just building the ToyRap and customize it for yourself or contribute improvements, the OpenSCAD files are available on GitHub. At the very least, I would recommend builders who are familiar with OpenSCAD to grab the code for the LCD box from there, as the name text can be changed.