3D Toy from a Drawing

I saw a new video by I Like to Make Stuff called Turning a drawing into a toy using 3d printing! About that time my nephew send me his Flat Stanley image. This is a school project in which kids send a picture of themselves around the country or world and have people take pictures of the Flat Person (hopefully) having fun in various situations. I took Flat Lukas to work, to Disneyland, to church, to the dentist etc. In the Flat Stanley books, he was flattened by a steamroller or a bulletin board. Eventually he is returned to 3D-hood by someone with a tire pump. I figured in the 21st century maybe Flat Lukas could be transformed by a 3D printer, so that video was timely.

I imported his artwork, drew sketches around it, broke it into parts for moveable arms, legs and head, made each part thick and rounded, and added pegs and holes so it could fit together. It turned out to be 10 parts, which I printed in 4 colors. The finished "action figure" is about 8 inches tall.

To get parts in skin tone, I used some GP3D Wood PLA that I had on hand from my trophy project. It came out OK, but that material is a pain to print and I'll probably never use up the remaining material. I had to print the head 4 times. This stuff thoroughly clogged my print head. I had never had to remove the "hot end" before but I did this time! It clogged a second time and I was able to unclog it with a "hot pull" and a *lot* of pressure.

Sticking parts to the print bed is a tricky business. Sometimes they don't stick well enough, and sometimes they won't come loose. See this post about damaging the glass bed of my printer. I read some good reviews of a product called Magigoo so I ordered some. It worked really well with most of the parts, but I also had some issues with the Z height preventing adhesion. The instructions and reviews are unclear as to how often one needs to apply it, that is how long it will last. Some people say they reapply after 100 prints - that seems extreme. I found it is sometimes hard to tell if it has applied or how thickly... need to get the light just right. But all in all I like it.

Here's a summary video of the design process in Fusion 360, using its timeline playback feature. Ssshhh - it's a surprise! I'll be shipping 3D Lukas to him soon. I'm posting the video here so he and his family can watch the video when the package arrives.