I really liked the idea of printing train tracks. I dont even have a Lego train or a 3d printer but this sounds like such a fun piece to print of your own design. You can adjust the peice design how you want it for your Lego city so it fits in any place.
Very exciting series. Thank you! I already use replacement cloth for sails and watchmaker back seal for rubber rings in a Lego build. 3D printing makes even more possible!
About the supports inside the pin hole - I'm designing those parts myself in solidworks (I would be lazy if I knew there was such cool tool though), but if you make surface of those sides of the pin hole slanted, you don't need support. And it can be something like just 15 degrees depending on how thick layer you're printing.
So there are settings called expansion settings, they change how much the filament is expected to expand when deposited, so if you adjusted the value to compensate a little less then you would make the holes and pins the right size, your issues are entirely your settings and a lack of experience with the machines, in the first video the issue was that the printer will do a bed level check and make a map of that, you have to adjust the z-offset, or the distance the nozzle is from the bed when printing to achieve a perfect first layer, you were just too high on the previous video and still a little too high in the second but much better, that's all. Most of us take days to get a new machine calibrated perfectly so it's not a shock you had some trouble. Nothing wrong with it or you. Those files work great. On top of the expansion settings you can tune your supports so they leave gaps between it and the part sides so that they can be removed much easier and don't fuse to the prints. Just settings. You can print lego with no problem of FDM/FFF printers, but resin does the best, aside from injection.
If I'm not mistaken those settings affect the whole model and not just certain parts. So e.g. if I change horizontal expansion that'll make the whole model bigger/smaller on the XY plane. In the case of the tracks that's exactly what I did when I scaled it up and as you could see it didn't work, since it couldn't connect anymore to other pieces. For the tracks I only needed to change the size of the studs, and for the Technic piece only the size of the holes, so these were specific local adjustments.
@@nadiaplaysgames2550 I totally understand the concept, but the changes I had to apply were selective, only on the studs, all other sections of the model were fine as is. If I change a parameter for the whole model then it might fix the studs but will also make worse everything else that was fine previously.
Keep in mind that expansion issues likely also don't apply uniformily to the print. For example, the first few layers often suffer from increased expansion, called elephant's foot, and this can be mitigated with a different setting. Which may explain why your tracks fit together great, but the pegs were too small. It may be necessary to tweak more than one setting to achieve the perfect fit.
Great idea to cover this subject, LEGO and 3D printing. Love it. My favourite 3D-printed LEGO additions: RIMs and boat hulls. In case you need any inspiration ;)
My needs would be far too infrequent to bother owning a 3D printer but always interesting to see other people experiment with them. I do however use Trixbrix 3D printed narrow gauge straight track, large radius curves and points, which have been free of issues.
with the rails and most other files that don't have any "vertical features" (like the holes in the custom technic frame) you can just push the layer height to .3mm to go way faster.
Great video. I personally tried to print lego components. The best solution for me could be to use an SLA printer as the quality is better and the joint with the original legos is more solid. I printed an entire lego technic set in 2:1 scale using PLA and ABS, in this case the result was satisfiyng.👍
I'd really like to see how your 3D printer would handle Lego pieces that have bars or clips in the design. Some of these pieces can be very problematic in terms of brittleness with their age, but printing something like part 30377 in teal/dark turquoise could be very helpful for someone with any Life on Mars sets for example.
i have an 3d printer (ender 3 pro) myself and 3d printed some custom lego technic pieces never had any issues and in my experience i never had to use any supports i now have upgraded too an bambu lab p1p i have found that the tolerances on that machine are way better and i didnt need to change the dimensions ever on that machine but i never printed lego pieces on that one
One cool thing you could easily do in the printer is really high detailed props for the "utility" technic sets. Like in the excavator or trucks you could print some ruble pieces to put on the loader and bed of the truck. really cool vid
All the issues you're having in this video are solved by "horizontal expansion" option in the slicer. By tweaking it a little you can adjust studs and holes size and you probably only need to do it once for your printer.
I'm not sure that would solve all or actually any of the issues. As I understand horizontal expansion makes everything larger on the XY plane. That's exactly what I did with the tracks when I scaled it up, and as you could see it failed to connect to other pieces. The track pieces only need the studs to be larger, nothing else. Same goes for the holes in the Technic pieces, the external dimensions shouldn't change, only the diameter of the holes, that's why the tool is useful as I am able to tweak individual settings.
@@RacingBrick nope, it's not quite the same thing as scaling the part horizontally. It increases or decreases size of holes or studs without moving them away from each other. And it quite probably might be a reason why the rails didn't fit together after a simple scaling.
There's also a separate "hole horizontal expansion" in Cura to tweak just the holes. You might also want to check the flow calibration, studs may be thinner because of a little underflow.
@@EviGL don't want to nitpick, but the problem was not with the position of the holes and the studs :) As I mentioned I had to change the size of the studs *only*, everything else was fine and should stayed the same. Changing a parameter that affects the whole model is not a good solution in this case.
@RacingBrick Using horizontal expansion is significantly different than scaling the part. This is not nitpicking. Scaling a part to make it fit better with Lego components is very likely to fail because you are moving the location of features. Using horizontal expansion, on the other hand, doesn't move things. It simply makes the mating surfaces expand or receed. This is generally exactly what you need to fix the fit. If the original file worked on another printer but not yours, then it's probably a difference in how much material is being extruded. Quickest fix it to tweak the expansion. You might want to try that for the fun of it with the original file. There's more than one setting for this, as EviGL pointed out. Give it a try. 😀
There are a few pieces I would like to see. Like a slope corner combining 33 and 45 degree slopes. But I am not likely to get a 3D printer myself until I can find one that lets me print Poser figures in N scale.
Hey man, I got a flash forge adventurer 3d printer and after a couple uses I just didn’t like that I couldn’t get much detail from it, I purchased an elegoo resin 3d printer for roughly the same price and started making custom parts and I didn’t need any clean up I just cure the print and it fit with existing Lego bricks
@@RacingBrick I’ve broken a few fdm parts I’ve made. But with my new printer the parts are actually really sturdy, with the right resin it’ll be just as rigid as regular Lego, I got the “elegoo mars 3 with crying and wash station bundle” I bought mine off of Amazon but I’m sure you could get the bundle somewhere else,
@@RacingBrick in my personal opinion the resin 3d printer is a great investment, you can get water washable resin to make it easier, and like i said i myself have a flash forge adventurer 3d printer like you do, but I’ve recently fell into an rut where no matter what I print, I’ll always have a layer shift, to a point where the parts I make aren’t even compatible,
Aren't some of these connections at risk of being illegal? As in, connections that are "too tight" may slowly damage the Lego piece. I think it's the reason all dimensions erred on the side of looseness in the blueprints.
Not sure what you mean by illegal connection, as in the LEGO world that'd be something else. It might depend on the filament used of course, but I think in general the LEGO piece would damage the print :)
I tried printing some of the tracks, all worked well except the track switches, Lego has a spring in the switches and the 3d printed parts don't which impact the trains when they hit the switch from the opposite direction :(
are you sure the files didnt include a spot for a spring, I've designed springs and mechanical things into my models before so they definitely could have.
Depends on what you are looking for. I have instructions for different RC versions, this is the one behind be on the shelf - racingbrick.com/lego-technic-42077-rally-car-buwizz-buggy-motor-rc-mod/ For the stickers you need to contact forwartsticker.com/
@@eunchanpark503 the instructions are digital downloads, you get them in an e-mail. But to make it clear, you need to have 42077 and you have to buy the additional parts yourself. Regarding the stickers I don't know as I don't run that business, you should get in touch with the owner to ask for shipping to South Korea.
I want to see more with people printing lego compatable parts with resin printers. Much higher accuracy and faster printing should make veryical holes and horizontal holes.much more similar in tolerance / fit and would make batch printing / printing larger parts much faster.
I have another video with a resin printer. The main challenge there is the support and part orientation, I couldn't figure out a way to have perfectly straight lines and sharp corners on the pieces, they always got a bit distorted at the connection points with the support.
I don't know. Resin is definitely more difficult to work with, needs way more post processing. Some say resin printed objects can be more brittle. I might try it later on with a smaller / cheaper resin printer, but I'm not there yet.
These videos are great but I'm so conflicted. On one hand I love the challenge of only using pieces LEGO makes for models, but I also love making CAD models and 3D printing. Also great to see another 3DS Max user! What did you use the software for?
I think it's great to expand the universe of LEGO and create something that is not in the portfolio. I used 3ds Max to design custom inflatable product displays :)
@@RacingBrick You can for sure print TPU on a bowden extruder. Most people just give old/outdated advice. th-cam.com/play/PLgQ4HZ56XQgLbTq08w7IAyPLa0w6DSX6S.html this playlist from Lost in Tech channel is really helpful and it allowed me to print good quality TPU prints (even with 75A TPU) on my bowden Ender 3
@@UTKDesign as I mentioned in the video I know it is technically possible and others managed to do it, but I simply didn't want to risk it as I already managed to clog my device once, and I already have a proper printer for the purpose.
@@RacingBrick Well it is great that you now have a direct drive extruder. I have also clogged my nozzle in the past with Marble filament but I dont think it is likely to clog it with TPU, but you can perhaps clog the extruder with TPU. Either way direct drive is gonna be better anyway so happy printing!
I would be most interested in if 3D printing works for minifigure accessories? For instance, due to Lego's anti-war policy they intentionally limit weapon options, but there's a lot of gun types that would be nice to have for the Star Wars line.
Pinholes and Studs are the WORST for FDM 3D printing of Lego Components. I had a model I built that worked perfectly and created great results for me off my printer. I shared the files with another club member after they gushed about my 3D printed model at a meeting. Come to find out he couldn't get it to work, and he blamed my model instead of his printing environment. If he'd not just gotten mad at me and complained behind my back, I would have helped him with the issues... :P I hear resin printers have better tolerances than FDM.
![ILLSLICK X YOUNGOHM - We're The same [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yUJNkobYR0E/mqdefault.jpg)
Imagine all the custom rims you could make for large technic builds 🤔
I really liked the idea of printing train tracks. I dont even have a Lego train or a 3d printer but this sounds like such a fun piece to print of your own design. You can adjust the peice design how you want it for your Lego city so it fits in any place.
Very exciting series. Thank you! I already use replacement cloth for sails and watchmaker back seal for rubber rings in a Lego build. 3D printing makes even more possible!
About the supports inside the pin hole - I'm designing those parts myself in solidworks (I would be lazy if I knew there was such cool tool though), but if you make surface of those sides of the pin hole slanted, you don't need support. And it can be something like just 15 degrees depending on how thick layer you're printing.
I bought some 3D printed monorail track from 4DBrix years ago and I'm still using it now.
try to print some custom spoked rims for some of the cars on the wall behind you
Thank you for being willing to try again! Much better results this time.
you can use meckabricks to export a (kinda low poly) 3d model of allmost every lego piece.
You should print technic rims !
So there are settings called expansion settings, they change how much the filament is expected to expand when deposited, so if you adjusted the value to compensate a little less then you would make the holes and pins the right size, your issues are entirely your settings and a lack of experience with the machines, in the first video the issue was that the printer will do a bed level check and make a map of that, you have to adjust the z-offset, or the distance the nozzle is from the bed when printing to achieve a perfect first layer, you were just too high on the previous video and still a little too high in the second but much better, that's all. Most of us take days to get a new machine calibrated perfectly so it's not a shock you had some trouble. Nothing wrong with it or you. Those files work great. On top of the expansion settings you can tune your supports so they leave gaps between it and the part sides so that they can be removed much easier and don't fuse to the prints. Just settings. You can print lego with no problem of FDM/FFF printers, but resin does the best, aside from injection.
If I'm not mistaken those settings affect the whole model and not just certain parts. So e.g. if I change horizontal expansion that'll make the whole model bigger/smaller on the XY plane. In the case of the tracks that's exactly what I did when I scaled it up and as you could see it didn't work, since it couldn't connect anymore to other pieces. For the tracks I only needed to change the size of the studs, and for the Technic piece only the size of the holes, so these were specific local adjustments.
@@RacingBrick think of it like a displacement then a scaling it offsets based where the face is pointing ill say atleast give it a shot
@@nadiaplaysgames2550 I totally understand the concept, but the changes I had to apply were selective, only on the studs, all other sections of the model were fine as is. If I change a parameter for the whole model then it might fix the studs but will also make worse everything else that was fine previously.
Keep in mind that expansion issues likely also don't apply uniformily to the print. For example, the first few layers often suffer from increased expansion, called elephant's foot, and this can be mitigated with a different setting. Which may explain why your tracks fit together great, but the pegs were too small. It may be necessary to tweak more than one setting to achieve the perfect fit.
What a grest idea to just 3d print Lego bricks and sets! I'm surprised I have never seen it before!
I'm looking forward to see more episodes!
Adjustable springs made by 3D printing is my next goal
I’d love to see DIY-printed 9V track: creating the plastic base and then adding strips of metal to it. 9V track is like gold!
Great idea to cover this subject, LEGO and 3D printing. Love it. My favourite 3D-printed LEGO additions: RIMs and boat hulls. In case you need any inspiration ;)
Use "horizontal expansion" in your slicer to make more plastic without increasing the overall scale.
That expands the base as well, I don't need that
Y’know i would like to see excavador tracks 3D printed
My needs would be far too infrequent to bother owning a 3D printer but always interesting to see other people experiment with them.
I do however use Trixbrix 3D printed narrow gauge straight track, large radius curves and points, which have been free of issues.
with the rails and most other files that don't have any "vertical features" (like the holes in the custom technic frame) you can just push the layer height to .3mm to go way faster.
I love this series!
Can you make flexible beam to add suspensions to your model ?
i think the Speed Champion 2023 sets are released on certain websites as a sort of replica or early access, you should definetly check those out!
Can you give some pointers? Didn't see anything like that
Great video.
I personally tried to print lego components. The best solution for me could be to use an SLA printer as the quality is better and the joint with the original legos is more solid.
I printed an entire lego technic set in 2:1 scale using PLA and ABS, in this case the result was satisfiyng.👍
I definitely got to get that train track cross
I'd really like to see how your 3D printer would handle Lego pieces that have bars or clips in the design. Some of these pieces can be very problematic in terms of brittleness with their age, but printing something like part 30377 in teal/dark turquoise could be very helpful for someone with any Life on Mars sets for example.
i have an 3d printer (ender 3 pro) myself and 3d printed some custom lego technic pieces never had any issues and in my experience i never had to use any supports i now have upgraded too an bambu lab p1p i have found that the tolerances on that machine are way better and i didnt need to change the dimensions ever on that machine but i never printed lego pieces on that one
One cool thing you could easily do in the printer is really high detailed props for the "utility" technic sets. Like in the excavator or trucks you could print some ruble pieces to put on the loader and bed of the truck. really cool vid
This is a really cool series, thank you
All the issues you're having in this video are solved by "horizontal expansion" option in the slicer. By tweaking it a little you can adjust studs and holes size and you probably only need to do it once for your printer.
I'm not sure that would solve all or actually any of the issues. As I understand horizontal expansion makes everything larger on the XY plane. That's exactly what I did with the tracks when I scaled it up, and as you could see it failed to connect to other pieces. The track pieces only need the studs to be larger, nothing else. Same goes for the holes in the Technic pieces, the external dimensions shouldn't change, only the diameter of the holes, that's why the tool is useful as I am able to tweak individual settings.
@@RacingBrick nope, it's not quite the same thing as scaling the part horizontally. It increases or decreases size of holes or studs without moving them away from each other. And it quite probably might be a reason why the rails didn't fit together after a simple scaling.
There's also a separate "hole horizontal expansion" in Cura to tweak just the holes.
You might also want to check the flow calibration, studs may be thinner because of a little underflow.
@@EviGL don't want to nitpick, but the problem was not with the position of the holes and the studs :) As I mentioned I had to change the size of the studs *only*, everything else was fine and should stayed the same. Changing a parameter that affects the whole model is not a good solution in this case.
@RacingBrick Using horizontal expansion is significantly different than scaling the part. This is not nitpicking. Scaling a part to make it fit better with Lego components is very likely to fail because you are moving the location of features. Using horizontal expansion, on the other hand, doesn't move things. It simply makes the mating surfaces expand or receed. This is generally exactly what you need to fix the fit. If the original file worked on another printer but not yours, then it's probably a difference in how much material is being extruded. Quickest fix it to tweak the expansion. You might want to try that for the fun of it with the original file. There's more than one setting for this, as EviGL pointed out. Give it a try. 😀
Also, you can print lego roller coaster peices
The fact u can create custom parts that dont exist and use them for technice builds is the best fact id say tho.
Great video. Can you please share your STL you made for the track pieces that fit better? Thank you
High quality content as usual!
There are a few pieces I would like to see. Like a slope corner combining 33 and 45 degree slopes. But I am not likely to get a 3D printer myself until I can find one that lets me print Poser figures in N scale.
Resin printer next tho
I've been waiting for this one. I should buy some trains :D
Are you going to make shock absorbers for the Batmobile? (!)
can u show us all the alternate builds from the buggati bolide
Hey man, I got a flash forge adventurer 3d printer and after a couple uses I just didn’t like that I couldn’t get much detail from it, I purchased an elegoo resin 3d printer for roughly the same price and started making custom parts and I didn’t need any clean up I just cure the print and it fit with existing Lego bricks
How about the stiffness of the parts, are they flexible enough to snap with other LEGO pieces, there's no breaking etc?
@@RacingBrick I’ve broken a few fdm parts I’ve made. But with my new printer the parts are actually really sturdy, with the right resin it’ll be just as rigid as regular Lego, I got the “elegoo mars 3 with crying and wash station bundle” I bought mine off of Amazon but I’m sure you could get the bundle somewhere else,
@@RacingBrick I honestly recommend it, I printed a little animal as a test print and I accidentally dropped it and it hardly scratched
@@RacingBrick in my personal opinion the resin 3d printer is a great investment, you can get water washable resin to make it easier, and like i said i myself have a flash forge adventurer 3d printer like you do, but I’ve recently fell into an rut where no matter what I print, I’ll always have a layer shift, to a point where the parts I make aren’t even compatible,
Aren't some of these connections at risk of being illegal? As in, connections that are "too tight" may slowly damage the Lego piece.
I think it's the reason all dimensions erred on the side of looseness in the blueprints.
Not sure what you mean by illegal connection, as in the LEGO world that'd be something else. It might depend on the filament used of course, but I think in general the LEGO piece would damage the print :)
Nice Video!
RacingBrick doing a 3D print series just after I bought a 3D printer. I can see myself doing a lot of experimenting.
I tried printing some of the tracks, all worked well except the track switches, Lego has a spring in the switches and the 3d printed parts don't which impact the trains when they hit the switch from the opposite direction :(
are you sure the files didnt include a spot for a spring, I've designed springs and mechanical things into my models before so they definitely could have.
And print drift tires with the soft material
Let me know how to make your 42077. Yours is very cool and i want to make it
Depends on what you are looking for. I have instructions for different RC versions, this is the one behind be on the shelf - racingbrick.com/lego-technic-42077-rally-car-buwizz-buggy-motor-rc-mod/
For the stickers you need to contact forwartsticker.com/
@@RacingBrick i live in south korea. if i buy it, when it delivered to me?
@@eunchanpark503 the instructions are digital downloads, you get them in an e-mail. But to make it clear, you need to have 42077 and you have to buy the additional parts yourself. Regarding the stickers I don't know as I don't run that business, you should get in touch with the owner to ask for shipping to South Korea.
@@RacingBrick oh i thought it was your site. Thank your answer
hello bro please tell in 4dbricks what the difference is between standard model and surfaced optimised model , please tell.
I have no idea, I used the standard models. You can ask them if you want to.
Jó napot Balázs. van nekem egy kis kérdésem, ha bírná megmondani.
A legó 9 voltos sineket lehet rákapcsolni a modern legó műanyag sinekkel?
fizikailag össze lehet kapcsolni őket
@@RacingBrick köszönöm
He's gonna print tires with the tpu, because it is flexible.
Maybe leaf springs?
I want you to 3d print custom lego connecting rods for MOC locomotives.
Cool !
P.S. I thought there will be some info about 42146 :)
In a 3d printing video? :D
Rare star wars minifigs? Or better rims
Try to print comp 61903. Or was it asked already?
I want to see more with people printing lego compatable parts with resin printers. Much higher accuracy and faster printing should make veryical holes and horizontal holes.much more similar in tolerance / fit and would make batch printing / printing larger parts much faster.
I have another video with a resin printer. The main challenge there is the support and part orientation, I couldn't figure out a way to have perfectly straight lines and sharp corners on the pieces, they always got a bit distorted at the connection points with the support.
3:10 ah yes 3ds max 6, now that's an interface I haven't seen in a while.
It's actually 3ds Max 7, much newer! :D
What about resin printers? Can you get better results with it?
I don't know. Resin is definitely more difficult to work with, needs way more post processing. Some say resin printed objects can be more brittle. I might try it later on with a smaller / cheaper resin printer, but I'm not there yet.
Yup. Far more accurate and faster. Standard resin is too brittle but use an 'abs-like' resin and it works beautifully.
Hrm first thought is suspension then pullback motors and clutch and now it's motorization a
"Printed ABS less flexible than PLA"? It's exactly the opposite I think. PLA is very brittle, while ABS flexes quite well in comparison.
That's my experience, although I only tried one type of ABS filament, but several PLAs.
Can you try to make a Lego constration piece
what about resin printer they far higher tolerance than FDM
Very interesting again. But what do you do with prints that were not good? Can you recycle them somehow?
i always wonder if the lamp is aligned with the crane intentionally or not
Nothing happens by accident ;)
These videos are great but I'm so conflicted. On one hand I love the challenge of only using pieces LEGO makes for models, but I also love making CAD models and 3D printing.
Also great to see another 3DS Max user! What did you use the software for?
I think it's great to expand the universe of LEGO and create something that is not in the portfolio. I used 3ds Max to design custom inflatable product displays :)
@@RacingBrick You can for sure print TPU on a bowden extruder. Most people just give old/outdated advice. th-cam.com/play/PLgQ4HZ56XQgLbTq08w7IAyPLa0w6DSX6S.html this playlist from Lost in Tech channel is really helpful and it allowed me to print good quality TPU prints (even with 75A TPU) on my bowden Ender 3
@@UTKDesign as I mentioned in the video I know it is technically possible and others managed to do it, but I simply didn't want to risk it as I already managed to clog my device once, and I already have a proper printer for the purpose.
@@RacingBrick Well it is great that you now have a direct drive extruder. I have also clogged my nozzle in the past with Marble filament but I dont think it is likely to clog it with TPU, but you can perhaps clog the extruder with TPU. Either way direct drive is gonna be better anyway so happy printing!
I really like 3D printers, but printing LEGO related bricks/components feels like cheating on your girlfriend haha
I don't think so, it's like teaching something new to your girlfriend ;)
@@RacingBrick 😉 📸
And sometimes, designing these pieces is a true challenge on its own
Oh so that explains why you have so many unofficial bricks!
Btw it’s the parts that don’t exist as oficial LEGO part’s
Try to make a little technic car with the prices!
I would be most interested in if 3D printing works for minifigure accessories?
For instance, due to Lego's anti-war policy they intentionally limit weapon options, but there's a lot of gun types that would be nice to have for the Star Wars line.
you print TONS of minifigure accessories, it is quite awsome!
It works great for minifigs and accessories and even better for bigfigs, ive printed a few 6" tall bigfigs
what 3d printer did you use because im looking to get one
It's in the description of the video (Flashforge Adventurer 4), but there are many different options
Pinholes and Studs are the WORST for FDM 3D printing of Lego Components. I had a model I built that worked perfectly and created great results for me off my printer. I shared the files with another club member after they gushed about my 3D printed model at a meeting. Come to find out he couldn't get it to work, and he blamed my model instead of his printing environment. If he'd not just gotten mad at me and complained behind my back, I would have helped him with the issues... :P I hear resin printers have better tolerances than FDM.
Very good chance that if your club member had adjusted the horizontal expansion or some other setting that's not right, it would have worked.
maybe try a resin printer?
what slicer is he using?
He is using Flashprint but tried Cura as well for some of these prints
@@RacingBrick I hope he understands how awesome he is for replying to my comment
Hi👋
Resurrect the Lego Technic figurine, hehe.
Hey
are you related to @StezStixFix ? you look like brothers
I don't think so :D Apart from the glasses and the beard I don't think we look that similar actually :)
who is stopping someone to make 8 stud or 10 stud wide rails
The same site has files for a narrow guage track system that has six stud ties instead of the standard eight studs.
First