3DPrinting

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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.

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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.

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[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

It's fairly minimal compared to the amount of microplastics that go down the drain every time someone washes a load of laundry made from synthetic fibers. At least PLA dust will break down a bit faster than many of the other microplastics.

[–] Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 points 16 hours ago

Synthetic fibers are a fucking nightmare too, just actively sanding it and creating all those microplastics right there, without even washing it away, possibly BREATHING it!! gives me the heebie jeebies after learning about how much plastic is in our brains.