If you have a hobby, it is natural to want to share it with kids. If you are interested in 3D printing, you may even have kids who want to try their hand at printing without prompting. There are a number of “kid printers” aimed specifically at that market. Are they worthwhile? How old is old enough? [Everson Siqueirar] tries out a Kidoodle with this 6-year-old daughter, and the results are good, as you can see in the video below.
Impressively, his daughter [Sophie] was able to set up the printer with a little help. The build plate is very small and not heated. Apparently, a glue stick is necessary for bed adhesion. The printer has WiFi but also has a collection of models you can print without any internet connection.
The results were good, and it looks like [Sophie] did all the work, which was impressive; she did a great job. While you could print some models locally and some on the network. You can also slice your own models, but if you use something like Cura or Slic3r, you’ll have to do some work to get a good profile. [Everson] tried it and managed to jam the printer. That requires adult intervention. But outside of that, [Sophie] was able to work on her own, even printing a few models while dad took a nap.
Technically, the printer has an enclosure, a large screen, and a direct drive extruder with an all-metal hot end. Not bad for a kid’s printer. It normally takes a small spool, but you can print an adapter for normal spools, although it was too fat for some spools and required a redesign.
We thought this printer was already out, but it is, alas, a Kickstarter. We’ve seen other printers try to address this market, including one from Mattel. You might argue that kids learn more from building a printer, but that has challenges, too.
I like tech as much as anyone else here but do kids really need to be able to print lots of useless low quality plastic junk that will certainly end up in a landfill in less than 3 years ?
Might get some flakk for this but I think 3d printing should be a tool, not a “hobby”.
If youre so concerned about the landfills, should kids not draw or learn to write because of all the paper? What about all those synthetic fibers in clothing, kids clothes are the fastest of fashion since they constantly grow, nothing but cotton for kiddos?
Most PLA is corn based. In any case it degrades in ~60 days under typical landfill conditions.
Googling “how fast does pla decgrade in a landfill” returned a snippet that read “In our experiment, PLA degraded about 60% in 30 days, about 80% in 40 days, and about 90% in 60 days using the new evaluation system.” Further reading showed that wasnt stating the degradation in a landfill. My bad.
Paper is recyclable and you don’t need to buy your child new clothes all the time, especially when they are growing fast, second hand or hand me down clothes work fine and clothes can be sold, donated or recycled too.
clothes stain, and tear, and wear. Everything has an end of life. New clothes will always be bought, old things disposed of.
I suppose youll be handwashing nappies if you ever have a child? According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a disposable diaper can take up to 450 years to decompose in a landfill environment. A typical baby will go through nearly 6000 diapers before they’re potty trained.
PS like paper, and unlike diapers, PLA is recyclable.
The real value of 3D printing is in being able to print stuff that you designed yourself. I don’t know if there are any CAD (or just modelling) programs which have child friendly interfaces. If the child can’t design their own designs, it’s honestly not very different than taking them to a toy shop and letting them buy something.
Printing is cool but i doubt a child would be interested in the process itself until they’re a bit older.
All kids i know can sit in the same spot for hours and have unwavering monk-like focus on their parents’ phone (or in some cases, their OWN iPad). The sad part is they’re watching tiktok or other short format video app. Just random videos about no particular topic.
The hyperactive kids who couldn’t sit still for a moment seem like such a fond memory now
My kids (6 and 9 year old) used Tinkercad to create little ornaments. We have printed a few of them together. I use slic3r on the stl export to generate the g code. First they drawn too small features. Then the exported model had errors. So the adult help was necessary but they learned a lot from it. Then they painted them with a brush.
I don’t see the point in having a “kids printer” but they use the same one that I have. Why would I buy a small shitty printer if I have a normal one? Even if I would not have one I would buy the kids a sane entry level machine or nothing. I think it is possible to print the few models at a friend or in a public workshop it is not necessary to buy the machine. My kids only did a few models that would cost almost nothing to print as a service.
I have two plans that involve 3d printing: I am planning printing models that are to be assembled from flat parts and they will assemble them. (I also have a 4 year old.) It is still like a toy but at least it has a manual somewhat creative step. On the modeling side it would be nice to make them use Blender because that has endless potential if they learn. I also plan to create a 3d game together and it would be nice if they could create 3d models.
With modern slicers it can be very easy to slice models anyway, especially using PLA.
I have an X1C and for prototypes or tests I just use default settings for all kinds of materials, their generic profiles work well too. Literally just import the stls, hit the auto orient and align buttons and most of the time it gets it right and then just slice and send it.
If it has issues or I need a stronger part then I go and change settings afterwards, most of the time there are no issues though and if it is a structural part I tend to print it weak in PLA first anyway to check fit and assembly before using something like PC with thick walls.
There are a lot of very good cheap printers now, the bambu A1 series are a good example and apparently the new ender 3 variants are good now too.
Video@ 2:20
“this is a toy”
I totally agree with you about learning how to 3D print as a kid and the patience to do CAD even with tinkerCAD is down to the specific child.
But, this thing is like owning a toy car verses a real one.
Or possibly a vending machine crossed with a replicator of limited choice.
yeah i printed a few things for my kids — like an adaptor to hook two dissimilar train sets to eachother and to lego. they were only impressed by the function as a toy. in 4th or 5th grade, his art teacher let him draw an airplane in some elementary freehand cad program, and printed it out. he was excited about it for a couple hours and then not anymore. neither of them have expressed even ten seconds’ interest in watching the printer do its raster visit.
i’m thinking the middle school shop class will make more of an impact on him, since it will focus more on functional devices and CAD than drawing. there’s definitely a limit to what / when kids will be interested, though every kid is different.
on another note, i don’t know if i’m more surprised that the kid is 12 or that my printer is 10 years old. time! man!
I told myself that I wasn’t going to print toys or useless objects with my 3D printer.
But now, I want a Jeep!
B^)
Another option with a 3DP is just to get your kid a 3DP.
I picked up an “unopened return” printer for $90, and thought we could get a project out of it. Damn thing worked straight off the bat.
Bed probing is a good idea for kids, because that is honestly the only setup hassle that’s left these days.
My son is 10, and goes from Tinkercad -> PrusaSlicer -> printer entirely on his own, with no fancy shenanigans.
I have bought 3 of the “unopened return” printers. Two had very minor problems and some wear (build plate, one needed a firmware flash, busted Y limit switch). The third one, however, had like 100 hours of printing on it, had a busted CR touch, and was in pieces. It looked worse than it was but I did have to supply hardware to put the frame back together (that is M5 bolts). The CR touch was fixed with CA glue and an M3 washer. So sometimes you get a project and sometimes you don’t.
I think I heard you and Al discuss this on a podcast but don’t recall if you said where you purchased the printers. Amazon?
The frugality factor and possibly forcing me to get to know the details of the printer tempt me as much as actually having and using the 3D printer.
Hi everybody! It’s me: Everson, Sophie’s dad. About some comments: I agree that you don’t need a printer “made for kids” to involve the little ones into 3D Printing. Sophie was born in a house full of them. She liked to watch them work – when she saw something interesting, she asked me to print one more just for her. Actually, she has a box my failed prints because she likes to pretend those things are buildings, ships… and Tree-Supports became “real trees” in her stories.
When she is nearby, she likes to take stuff from my print-beds – she knows they are hot, so she touches them quickly to feel them, before grabbing for real. This is all learning.
About Printers for Kids: her first one was an X-Maker (that I also have a video about) – and that printer is probably made in collaboration with FlashForge – it is not a ‘toy’ in the sense it has a better construction, with a metal chassis. It also lacked the heated bed, it doesn’t have a mesh-levelling compensation… So the software relied on “Rafts” for all the models. It was SLOOOW, so anything she printed, was to be picked up the next day. Its catalog of models was even more refined interesting than the one Kidoodle offers. BUT here is the problem: when the Kid picked a model – on a Tablet – it would download and actually SLICE the model on the tablet… it took forever and it was very confusing… the tablet went into sleep mode before the slicing finished. It was frustrating.
Here is where Kidoodle scored big time: the models are pre-sliced. The printer starts heating up while the download is still going on. And I don’t need to give Sophie a phone or a tablet. She goes directly to the printer.
Why I think this is good for her? She is printing things EVERY day, at least one model. It is hers, she owns it. She chooses, she doesn’t ask me if she could… Her favourite model? The Gear Bearing that I sliced to the pen drive. She printed two and tomorrow she asked if I could make it bigger. Later today I will show her in the Slicer how it is done. This natural curiosity and desire to make different things emerges from the fact the process now became extremely natural and independent from us. In school I know they are starting to do simple things with Tinker Cad, soon we will need to give her a real computer.
If you want to give your Kid an Adult 3D Printer, that’s excellent! Or just help them use yours. It’s all game. But I was so well surprised with the instant “ownership” she got with this one.
I feel flattered to have our experience shared here on Hackaday! Thank you Al Williams!
My son is 12, and we home school, and this fall I’ll be his teacher for 3D modeling and printing. We bought a FlashForge Adventurer 5M and it was my first experience with a 3D printer. I’ve learned a lot myself as I prep for the coming school year. I think pairing 3D modeling with 3D printing is a great way to give kids something real they can touch after designing something in CAD.
While I’ve been learning and printing on my own he has already asked me about printing some things. My hope is to open a while world of 3D modeling and printing that he can potentially take in a direction that interests him most. I think either way you go getting kids started with some experience in 3D printing is a win and gives them a path for exploration.