3DPrinting

18997 readers

456 users here now

3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

The r/functionalprint community is now located at: or !functionalprint@fedia.io

There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml

Rules

No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
Do not create links to reddit
If you see an issue please flag it
No guns
No injury gore posts

If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe/ may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)

Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

j4k3@lemmy.world

andypiper@lemmy.world

GrayBackgroundMusic@lemmy.zip

Hot take: 3D printing toys kinda sucks (lemmy.world)

submitted 18 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) by squaresinger@lemmy.world to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world

48 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I used to print quite a lot of toys for my kids, but I stopped doing that, since it feels mostly like a waste of plastic.

3D printed toys are rarely enjoyable. The toys are usually either not interesting enough (think static, non-movable, single-color figurines like the low-poly-pokemon series), or not durable enough or both at the same time.

My kids liked the printed toys when they got them, but they barely looked at them after like 10 minutes and then they ended up rolling around the house until they broke, usually very soon.

I love 3D printing, I use it a lot for all sorts of things, but toys are just not a very good application for 3D prints, in my opinion. It's just not worth the plastic.

Edit: Just for context: I've been around the block with 3D printing. I started about 7 years ago and I've been the 3D printer repair guy for my circle of friends ever since, fixing up everyone else's printers. I design most of the things I print myself. The reason I am posting this is because pretty much everyone I know who has a printer and kids prints toys all the time, and any time I'm at any event where someone can shoehorn a box of give-away low-poly-pokemon in, there is one there.

IMO, this is all plastic waste and nothing else.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 13 points 16 hours ago

I much prefer printing mechanical things, and stuff that does stuff (or fixes stuff) is where it's at for me. For me to print a static model it has to either be sufficiently hilarious or fit with some inside joke in my household (penguins and ducks feature prominently) or I ain't doing it.

A word to the wise for anyone printing static models or figurines for your kids, or whatever. Print these in TPU instead of PLA. TPU is functionally indestructible except via heat, can't shatter, won't hurt as much if you step on it in the dark, and its moderate amount of squishiness means that it's significantly less likely to deal damage when younger brothers throw it at older sisters.