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Ask Slashdot: Economical Lego-Compatible 3-D Printer?
Wycliffe writes: There are plenty of high end 3d printers which allow high precision and large prints. There are also plenty of economical 3d printers but most of them don't have high enough precision for printing good Lego pieces. What is a good economical printer for printing small Lego pieces? Build size is not important as most Lego pieces are tiny but precision and quality prints are very important. What is a good, cheap 3D printer that can reliably print tiny Lego pieces? What is the best bang for the buck when you want a small printer and don't care about large prints?
I wonder if this is even legal?
As long as you don't print the LEGO trademark on them, it is legal. But it is not possible, at least on a cheap 3D-printer. Legos are made in custom injection molds with 0.005mm precision. A 3D printer is not going to even get close to that. Making Lego Bricks.
Depending on how many parts you are having made, consider sending them to a company with a good machine. I had to have a few parts made for a work project. I sent the parts, they sent me a quote, the price was reasonable and I got my parts quickly. I don't do this every day, so for me I wanted the parts in my grubby little hands rather than the machine to make the parts.
How about LEGO gets a high-end 3D printer and customers can submit CAD files for custom pieces that then could be avail. in low quantities to everyone?
With so much demand for lego pieces isn't it time to start thinking the right way? Forget a 3D printer, how about building a lego pieces making machine? A cutting machine, a moulding machine for home use as opposed to a 3D printer, which will probably not work well enough to make high quality pieces anyway.
You can't handle the truth.
That's the reason why many people who own LEGO bricks are scared of MegaBloks. MegaBloks makes generic bricks that are nominally compatible with LEGO bricks. But in practice, they are built to lower quality standards and tend to attach much more poorly. As small number of MegaBloks in a collection of LEGO bricks can cause a lot of havoc and result in LEGO models that keep falling apart.
And as the bricks look so similar, they are hard to remove from the collection of bricks, once the infestation has happened.
Having said that, I can definitely understand why OP would love to have a 3D printer that can output LEGO-compatible bricks. Every so often, it would be nice to build special-purpose adapter pieces that allow integrating non-LEGO hardware (e.g. a cell phone) into LEGO models. Perfect fit wouldn't necessarily be a strict requirement. And as the adapter is going to look quite unique, there isn't much risk of it accidentally getting confused with a genuine LEGO part.
TYCO used to make their own LEGO clone called "Super Blocks" that caused havoc. They were easy to pick out of the pile though since the pieces were noticeably more "glossy" than the genuine LEGO bricks.
As someone in this industry (Ultimaker)
I will tell you. There no single printer you can buy that will do Lego level of quality. The precision of lego is just beyond of what current 3D print tech can do. The molds Lego uses to make their bricks are already on the extreme level.
Now, if you want to replace 1 brick. You most likely can get away with any printer, as 1 imprecise brick in a build isn't an issue. But 5 in a row are.
Your best bet would most likely be a small SLA printer. Like the a Formlabs or a Autodesk Amber.
If you don't want the dirty bits of SLA. You're stuck with an FDM printer. Not the best option for what you are looking for. But no chemicals. I would look at an option that has a 0.25mm nozzle option. There are a few. Our latest iteration has it. But that's most certainly not the cheapest machine.
This is true-- there is no home 3D printer that can print a reasonable LEGO brick.
However, LEGO makes a lot of other ancillary pieces that you CAN print. Replacement heads for mini-figs, clip-on attachments to things, little flowers, buckets, etc. In addition, the LEGO Technic straight brackets (the long ones with the holes and plusses) are not too hard to print, and you can create your own configuration of those holes. (I have a customizable one up on ThingiVerse here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thi...).
So a 3D printer is not going to keep you from buying LEGO, but it might make playing and building with LEGO more fun.
E pluribus unum
I wonder if this is even legal?
It's technically legal to produce the basic bricks, since the applicable patents expired in 1989. As for trademarked Lego properties (like the mini-figures, for example) or any which are covered by more recent patents, you can still get away with it as long as you're only producing toys for personal use, and make no attempt to sell them.
But back to the OP's topic: The feasibility of making Lego compatible bricks with cheap 3D printers isn't actually the only question that you're going to have to face; you also need to take into account materials cost. Sure, the "Ultimaker 3D Printer" itself is quite expensive at US $2K -- but even if you gave up on cheaper options and decided to cough up that chunk of change, you also have to keep in mind that the plastic filament to feed the beast also costs money, to the tune of $20 to $80 per spool, depending upon what you're doing. On top of that, not every "printed" component comes out quite right... so you're likely to blow plenty of cash on ultimately wasted filament. Mind you, there are also so many other really cool things you could do with a 3D printer, besides making Lego bricks... but those things will just require that much more filament, and ultimately accomplish the opposite of your stated goal, that of saving money.
So the bottom line is, if you're going to get into 3D printing at all, you really need to do it "for the love of the game" as they say, not to save money. If all you want is cheaper Lego compatible bricks... then you'll probably be better off in the long run just buying generic brand bricks.
What Lego could do for me would be to offer kits of bulk pieces that are not intended to build something specific, at a good price. Older kits were a lot more like that
They do have those, appropriately named Lego Classic. And they are about the same price as any other Lego, around 6-8 cents/brick.
I know 3D printers are all the rage these days, but low cost CNC mills will give you far far better results than low cost 3D printers.
MegaBloks makes generic bricks that are nominally compatible with LEGO bricks. But in practice, they are built to lower quality standards and tend to attach much more poorly. As small number of MegaBloks in a collection of LEGO bricks can cause a lot of havoc and result in LEGO models that keep falling apart.
Yes, and even worse, in my experience, MegaBloks are dimensionally unstable over a decade or less, Legos are stable for at least 4 decades.
About 10 years ago I gave my nephews a set of MegaBloks and patted myself on the back because I had given an enormous set of "Legos" for so cheap. When new, they worked just as well as Legos. My nephews have long-since outgrown those MegaBloks but my own kids were visiting recently and we dragged them out. They do not stay together at all now.
I still have the real Legos which I had as a kid in the 1970's, and they hold together just like new.
So you might think you are getting a deal with MegaBloks, but not so much, if you plan on them lasting.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
How about "wee"?
The preferred unit form measuring microdimensionality is "itty-bitty".
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
As a child, lego is awesome because you can build stuff. Then take it apart. Then build new stuff.
As an adult, lego is awesome because you can build stuff. Then take it apart. Then build new stuff. And it's an engineering marvel in its own right. It's just awesome.
Binding properly 40 years later is merely evidence of the awesomeness. I pity you that this is something you don't appreciate.
It really depends on what the goals of the person are. You don't actually need the precision that lego does in order to create an interoperable part and I have done that with a consumer-grade 3d printer.
However:
You will have nowhere near the durability of a lego part. Not just in terms of strength, but in terms of wear. It will not last.
You will spend a *lot* more money per brick. Its been a while since I've done the calculation, but I'm pretty sure its at least an order of magnitude more expensive to print your own. Especially if you aren't using a consumer-grade printer (stratasys ABS is stupid brittle and very weak, completely unsuitable for the task, and absurdly expensive on top of that).
So why do it? Maybe for giggles (I've done a variety of 3d prints that are not really serious, but just to see if it can be done). Maybe for one-off pieces. It may be worthwhile to print an occasional piece that Lego does not. I've done a variety of those.
Bottom line: any reasonable printer should be able to do it, but *no* 3d printer can match Lego injection molding for quality, durability, price, etc.