Is it worth printing legos ?

Hello people

I'm new to reprap org and 3d printing, but have been researching for a while. I am going to get started with 3d printing, and the first thing on my mind is printing some legos.

But im wondering :

Is it worth printing legos quality-wise and cost-wise ?

It may be fun to experiment, but if the cost of materials and power used while printing a lego set comes more than outright buying the kit itself, then it would not justify doing it. Especially when the quality is low.

I have seen around good lego bricks which were printed, but most seems to have a surface finish that is not smooth and perfect. The ones printed with 0.1 mm layer thickness are quite good and work very well, but their surface finish is not as perfect as legos.

So i thought i'd come and ask advice on this matter.

Thanks for your responses.

To get that great feel of Legos, everything has to be just right. The connections between blocks requires very tight tolerances. I've even noticed that MegaBlocks don't snap together as well as real Legos. If there's a special custom piece you want, sure, try to print it. If you're looking for a whole bunch of blocks to build a castle or something, I think you're better off just buying them and saving yourself the work of having to "clean up" flaws on printed blocks.

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unity100
Is it worth printing legos quality-wise and cost-wise ?

No. If you need cheap parts you should get into mass production. 3d printing is more for unique parts, prototypes or small series <500 parts. Of course you can print small parts, but you will need a well built and calibrated printer, a lot of time and you need to know your printer.

The quality using fused desposition modeling is very good, but you will never get a perfect finish with it. That's in the nature of the printing process. And don't forget that a 3d printer is just a tool, like a milling machine (but normally much cheaper).

A 3d printer still brings a lot of fun and there are many things you can build using it, e.g. cases, little boxes, buttons and other things.

Just my opinion. Maybe I'm totally wrong but who knows…

I see.

In the subject of tolerances and fitting, the guy below seems to have printed quite good legos after his cheesy entrance to the video :

[www.youtube.com]

And as for costs neuromancer mentions - i dont need to mass produce blocks to sell or do anything - its just that if stuff comes more expensive than any singular lego set that i may just buy, then there is no logic. but if it comes even slightly cheaper, then there is some logic to it.

speaking of which, is it possible to further process 3d printed items to improve their surface finish - just like in real manufacturing processes ?

unless you need a very special part, you can actually get pretty much every block individually if you know where to look and at cents per piece have a look on aliexpress or even the lego website

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Um...you don't get the satisfaction of printing your own legos if you buy them though. I say, if you want to, do it! No, they aren't going to be as cheap or as good, but it will be fun to do and if you do come up with good fitting legos then the exercise will have been well worth it because your printer is now calibrated really well. 3d printers are to have fun with. Don't worry about how much it will cost you to print out a few legos.

better yet, why not design and print the resulting object instead of printing blocks,

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legos are quite fun stuff, because you can break and build many things with them. so, they are entertaining. directly printing an 3d object is of course much easier and neater, but, the object is what it is, when printed. if you check around youtube, you will find people building massive stuff with lego, which actually dont exist in lego collection or anywhere - just using their existing bricks and their imagination or 3rd party instructions.

still, even before printing something directly, a 3d printer should be able to at least print lego bricks (which are quite simple objects) to quality, so that it would satisfy when you print an object directly isnt it.

You still do not understand the technology of fused filament fabrication. You will never be able to get the same finish quality as mass-produced injection mold plastic parts. The process makes it impossible.

As for enhancing surface finish, search the forum, this subject has been discussed many times: sanding, acetone vapor bath. Both with serious disadvantages.

But from what you say you are expecting of printed parts, I don't think this is for you. Your expectations are simply too high.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2013 10:40PM by NormandC.

What Normand said...

My son has thousands of Legos and megablocks, and the megablocks tend to just sit in the bins unused due to inferior quality.
Only time the megablocks are ever really used is in custom builds where the megablock has a unique piece Lego does not have.

So, I can see printing custom Lego pieces that you cannot purchase, that will be mostly structural (hidden) pieces
and ones that combine Lego and Kinex, or pieces that can be used to minimize piece count on larger builds.

Legos are expensive because of their quality... buy them bulk online, garage sales or goodwill stores.

Note: my local goodwill gets damaged items from Target, so often you can get complete sets with just torn up boxes or the mini figure characters missing (stolen from target, hence damaged package).
I have bought so many lego packages from them that they keep them in the back for me and I just stop in and ask if they have any waiting for me... for a $100 damaged set I pay about $20 to $30

I see no logic (or financial benefit) in trying to print complete Lego kits or bulk bricks.

Interesting insights. thank you.