3D Printing Lego Heads

As an experiment, I tried to make my own 3D printed Lego head using Tinkercad and our Ultimaker 2 3D Printer.

You will need:
Testors Modeling Paint
EZ Digital Caliper (only if you don't use my measurements or want to teach the tool)
Pre-made Lego bodies to test
3D printer
Tinkercad

With the digital caliper, I was able to get precise measurements using a pre-made Lego head and body.  You can introduce the students to using a caliper or you can skip this part since the measurements are already done. It wasn't exactly what the caliper measured of course because you have to leave a few .mm as wiggle room.

Here is my project to copy and tinker. The hole inside the orange cylinder is the one that needs to be exact. It is 5.5mm X 5.05mm. All other measurements and shapes can be played with to make huge "Bobble-head" like Lego heads. You can easily delete the hat and ears if you want a standard Lego head or get funkier.

After the meticulousness of painting such a small item as well as the nit-picky measurements, I'd advise middle-high school students for this project. Larger heads might lower the grade level.

The print is made all in one piece with the hat and ears not being removable. I used Testors modeling paint to customize which only required one coat and a sharpie for the facial features.

The print was only 18 minutes, no supports necessary. 

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