Easy Print Kids Building Toys

thingiverse

There's a bin of toys in my son's classroom that every kid likes to play with the most. His teacher says that these are both the most favourite and educational toys in her classroom. I have no idea what they are called or where to buy them, so I borrowed a few and reverse engineered them. They're super easy to print, to the point where the kids get confused as to which are original and which are printed. This is an easy way to get a lot of play time out of 3d prints, if you print a bucket full. Multiple colours for best effect! I have some ideas of how to make these better. In time, I will remix better ones, adding more geometric figures than the set originally had. Print Settings Printer Brand: RepRap Printer: Geetech Prusa i3b Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution: 0.25mm Infill: No Notes: Just print. I used PLA, and it works wonderfully. Glue stick on the bed (not heated) made for a very good bond, there was zero curling. I used a 0.25mm layer height, and 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, the only thing you need to do is 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 colours. Lesson Plan and Activity Free play time, creativity. Identifying shapes and colours. Build awesome things, and create stories around the things. 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 play time. 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.