3D printers are perfect for grandfathers who have grandsons.

My design for Brio/Thomas compatible train tracks has been the end result for most  of my printing projects.

The Detolf display cabinets from IKEA are the go-to solution for displaying any kind of small items, such as figurines or models.

The spacing of the shelves leaves wasted space if the items are small, but the design does not allow brackets for more shelves to be added easily.

There are several solutions on the Internet for adding brackets using cable clamps but my  design (which is similar to that sold by other Internet developers) can be printed  on your own 3D printer for free.

Fisher Price used to make a toy door that had activities and sounds just right for toddlers. Part of the fun for our grandkids was posting letters, but only four generic envelopes are provided.

So, I designed a 3D model of the envelope and created a personal letter for everyone. Every sibling, parent, cousin, aunt, and uncle got their own envelope in their own colour.  The kids loved it, and very quickly associated the names with the different colours.

When one has a 3D printer, and one has children and grandchildren of a certain age, there are certain fundamental laws that must be obeyed.

You will be asked to print Pokemon.

I faithfully followed the directive, finding a suitable Pikachu model on Thingiverse and printing it in a brand new flexible filament purchased for this very task. But it turned out the tail was not up to the heavy duty required for toddler usage.

So I remixed the design and added a small strengthening part to help prevent the tail from detaching.

This is, by far, the most popular upload I have made to Thingiverse, and is also by far the simplest.

Original Pikachu

My amazingly complex contribution!

I have two 3D printers.

One is a generic Prusa I3 clone similar to this:

The other is a clone of the Wan-Hao Duplicator sold in Australia by the Aldi supermarket chain as the CocoonCreate: