Bella printed a missing part for one of her toys.

I got a text today saying Bella needed a part for one of her toys printed.

This got me pretty excited. My 3 year old is developing problem solving skills. It’s not that Dad will fix it, but what tools he will use too.

Hiding behind a cheap piece of plastic — Bella and a part of her toy

So we decided to make a new part for her toy. I suspect that the missing piece is somewhere in her toybox, but I just HAD to reinforce to that adorable little girl that she can make stuff herself.

We sat down in front of the computer with the part she had and a ruler and a tape-measure and a calipers and drew the part in Sketchup.

She was a little bit anxious to get done and print it. — Measure twice and draw once

It took a little while, but we got it all measured and drawn. The new part is ambidextrous.

Close enough? — Comparing the final file to the model.

Once we where happy with the model, we customized it. We added her name and some shapes. I did this as I am low on plastic and was afraid that it wouldn’t print due to running out. Knocking out areas uses less plastic. Also, it let her customize the part.

She was sure excited! — Bella starting to print her part.

I sliced and loaded the file, pre-heated the printer, and let her push ‘Print’.

The printer is so much fun for both of us to watch.

She was quite excited when the printer started to print her name. She can’t read yet, but she does recognize letters.

I tried hard to burn my fingers with a lighter doing this. — Comparison of the final part to the original. I ran out of green so I had to hot-swap to Red. Looks good I think.

This was my first filament hot-swap. It took me about 4 tries before I was happy with the transition. Only about 6 inches left on the green by that time. I think the effect turned out well.

I think I am going to need to print more letters in the near future. — The toy is a magnetic letters box. The part is one of the angle brackets

Who makes toys with soo many pieces to loose? Oh well. I am going to need to buy a box of small magnets so I can print more letters in the near future.

It FITS!!!! — The printed bracket almost in place

REPRAPs for the WIN — You can see how the green & red printed part can work for either side. Why didn’t they do this originally?

I wanted to do more text, but my letter count is low. — A pretty cool little toy. Missing lots of letters already though.

I staged this. She was fast asleep by the time it was done printing. — Sleeping with the new toy

I think this was a good father-daughter building and bonding experience.

Bella printed a missing part for one of her toys.

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