3D Printed Fidget Toys

An interesting enquiry lead to some rapid prototyping over the last couple of days.  Someone who sells sensory fidget toys online got in touch.  They sell a variety of fidget toys with some of them either being 3D printed or having 3D printed components.

3D Printed Fidget Toy – CAD View

One such toy they asked about was one with 4 keyboard switches in a small case.  While I was looking, I also found a cube shaped fidget toy that houses 6 switches and thought I would give that a try.  These have to be printed on one corner as can be seen in this screenshot from the printing software.  This is due to the way that models are printed.  It’s tricky to explain but, printed flat, the openings would mean that you have large spans that the filament has to bridge which is often a problem area as the hot filament can sag before it cools and hardens.  Printing on one corner means that nothing is horizontal.  Everything is at a 45 degree angle which the printer will cope with.

The problem with this is that you have a top heavy shape that has very little in contact with the print surface.  So, one worked but the second one fell over when it got to the top and the print was ruined.

In order to get this working, I decided to try printing in resin.  With resin printing, the model hangs upside down from the print surface and the way that it prints is completely different.  This worked perfectly.  This video shows the first prototype with two key switches added and a 3D printed cap just to test that it all fitted together nicely.