Project: American Girl Doll sized Bed
Kurt Gluck
Kurt-1 asked me to share my current project. I guess he would like the laughs :-(.
THE ATTACHMENT IS THIS DOCUMENT WITH PICTURES AS A PDF...
The twins (4.5 year olds) received a pair of American Girl Dolls. These are twice the height of Barbies, about 1/3 scale.
Target sells a bed for them $50 https://www.target.com/p/our-generation-dreams-for-two-pink-bunk-beds-accessory-set-for-18-34-dolls/-/A-86200594#lnk=sametab. But that would be two easy and cost too little and look too good :-).
Step one what size: My daughter in law gave me these measurements, not sure if they will work, but since I am a long way from getting anywhere, lets start with these:
W: 11.25" x L: 21.25" x H: 9.5" => 285.75 539.75 241.3
Step two find/beg/"acquire" a model to start with. I looked at various options (to scale up) on printables, makerworld, thangs -- was not happy, I widened my net: https://open3dmodel.com found this one: https://open3dmodel.com/3d-models/children-bed-ikea-mydal_374447.html
(Note license is “Personal or Education” so its ok for me to use for this I think)
I download it, it’s a “.rar” file, which is a form of archive, I go find an unarchiver for them for Macs. I open it up:
Step 3:
Cool, it has a “.obj”, I wonder?…… so, I fire up prusaslicer and load the .obj in and poof I have an enormous FULL size bed in the slicer. DOES NOT FIT ON THE BUILD PLATE :-)
I get those dimensions from my daughter-in-law and I scale it down, I even don’t worry about keeping it in proportion….
Still much bigger than the build plate.
And oh boy, it actually has BEDDING in it.
Step 4:
The bedding - turns out the model can be separated into Parts. Of course your get over 100 parts all named the same thing with a sequence number. I then with wrist pain, sit and select each part one at a time, identify about what it is (by coloring it) and sort of name it. IT HAS EACH SCREW !
There are some model errors with parts flying in space, but I just delete these. I then can delete the bedding, it works!
PS: at this scale a screw is 0.56mm deep by 3.66x.3.57mm oval (told you I didn’t scale proportionaly. So if one was insane you could just print the scale lumber and use m3 screws to hold it together, not a safe toy that way :-).
Step 5:
So, let’s start learning how to use prusaslicers cut tool…. I spend a couple of weeks looking at it and decide to cut it up like so:
Not the best for printing, but let’s try this…. I spend a week playing by the way with the various connectors. I decide that if this is the printing orientation, I can go with built in pegs on the top of the four posts on the bottom sections, BUT I have to use free standing pegs for the sidewise connections to put the level halves together (that’s the reason for the 5th build plate, it has the pegs to keep them out of the way.
Step 6:
Supports…. How on earth do I print this mess... So, lets be smart, and make a copy of one section and using a pair of negative generic boxes lets just try to print one corner of one section
Going to try full contact supports. Lets use some random transition PLA (printed solid) for the post, some random PLA (Printed Solid Elixer) for the screws and some leftover pink (Polar) PLA for the supports, and some natural PETG (printed solid) for the support interface.
And boom…. The model keeps popping off the bed. I clean it with 99% IPA, after switching to the satin sheet, and still … what’s actually happening is the PETG is curling off the PLA and the toolhead is hitting it I think and well here is a picture of last nights overnight mess
The model (smaller object) was printed in the lower left front corner of the bed till it went for a walk…. You can see the petg is a mess in the closeup.
Trying again, going to SLOW down the PETG even more, I had the max volumetric speed at 8, going to try 4.
Switching to “rectilinear grid”
Stay tuned… suggestions welcomed
Kurt-A (The other non-evil Kurt who knows little)
Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!
I know this may be more work to print it all - but, hopefully you have less print issues.
Kurt Gluck
Kurt Gluck
Kurt Gluck
Update-1 on American Girl Bed
First off, I have no idea what has happened, but it seems I can no longer download models from open3dmodel.com — it may be a bug in their website, stay tuned. Lucky I already did the download :-)
For those of you who wish to follow along here is a link (read only I hope) to all my files on dropbox.
The .3mf files should load into prusaslicer. The number in the file name is the version, The one I discussed should be number 6 and I am currently printing #7. My attempt to slow down the petg didn't seem to slow it as much as I expected. Still getting petg snot blobs, but it is working somewhat better. One of the big differences is I closed my enclosure which I shouldn't really do for PLA, but I wanted to see what would happen.
If you look at the included subfolder, that is the .rar file unpacked, and in it you can see the .obj file.
working.3mf -> I enlarged the specification of my printer so the entire bed fits on the printbed. This just made labeling things easier. I had scalled it. If you want it to be full size you can just rescale it in the slicer to 100%,
working6.3mf -> the one referenced in the previous posting
working7.3m -> current one
The word "working" in the 3mf file names obviously means "I am working on it" sadly not "it works" :-)
SO… how did working7 come out?
Defects:
*) Well, there are still petg snot blobs, BUT it survived. The result is that there are places where there was NO PETG interface below the PLA, and these came out ROUGH (as expected).
*) The total amount of support material was hard to remove. The Rectilinear Grid pattern for the Grid supports was way hard to remove.
*) The support fillament was PINK PLA the Interface was Clearish PETG, and the model was RED with sort of BLUE screws. — There is pink polluting the RED in places.
*) Since this was a draft I went with a 0.2mm layer height and I normally would have gone with a 0.1 (because I like things taking forever to print :-) ). This may explain why the screw heads look so bad. Frankly I am not sure if I need the screw heads, the twins won’t really appreciate them, and at 3mm they really are too small to do well pasted on the side of the model the way they are.
It stayed on the bed ! (satin sheet works better) - see the goobers that fell off it… sigh…
Wipe tower looks kinda rough
In general things don’t look that great, but when I clean off the supports (harder work than I would like)…
You can clearly see where the PETG worked and where it didn’t from the undersides.
Not sure what to try next to improve it. It’s close enough that I can’t stop here.
Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!
Kurt Gluck
Kurt Gluck
Update-3 on American Girl Bed (Progress!!)
THE ATTACHMENT BELOW IS THIS DOCUMENT WITH THE PICTURES, in addition, this update is in the dropbox folder whose link is in the writeup here
I got a very successful test print of the small portion of the bed I have been testing with. Lots of setting changes and retries. First, a big shout out to Bob Swika who on a much earlier thread of mine “Problems with overhangs looking bad” gave us all his settings for PETG interface. I reread my notes, started to apply some of his and Andy’s suggestions from that thread and I have a very nice underside.
TLDR:
Here is the topside:
Background, this is for a pair of American Girl dolls. Here is a bed for sale <$50 at Target that would work fine: https://www.target.com/p/our-generation-dreams-for-two-pink-bunk-beds-accessory-set-for-18-34-dolls/-/A-86200594#lnk=sametab
I found a model off a 3d model website (the website has stoped working): https://open3dmodel.com/3d-models/children-bed-ikea-mydal_374447.html
In order to fit this on the XL, and to not have a ton of glueing I use the slicers cut tool to chop it into 4 poorly advised hunks:
Ok, on to the settings that are working:
You can view my files in the following dropbox folder:
Most notable is the file: ikea-mydal-scaled-01.3mf which is my most current .3mf file, which contains all the settings and the .obj after it’s been sectioned. The subfolder: 90624_open3dmodel-FROM-rar-file holds the original .obj file from the web.
The “-01” portion of the 3mf file is a sequence number. This writeup has “01” since I have restarted counting now that I have something that looks good.
What’s changed:
- Even though it’s PETG, maybe because of AC I have the enclosure closed. This may bite me we will see.
- I found (Thanks Bob) a better way to slow the interface printing down “PrintSettings->Speed->Support Material Interface” Is now 10 (was 40)
- “Multiple Extruders->”
- “Wipe Tower Brim” is 10mm
- “No Sparse Layers” is now SELECTED (this may be a problem, but for testing at least its saving lots of fillament since the wipe tower in these tall-narrow test prints weigh much more than the test part.
- “Support Material->”
- “Auto Generated” is off, I painted supports where I wanted them, Yes I know I should have done this to start, I am lazy
- First layer expansion = 10 (that old bed sticking problem its tall !)
- “Style” = GRID
- “Contact Distance” = 0 (this has been set all along for these tests
- “With sheath around support” SELECTED (thanks bob)
- Top interface layers = 5 (I did this to make the PETG pad thicker)
- Bottom Interface Layers = 5 (same as top)
- Interface pattern = Rect (thanks bob/Andy)
- Interface loops = selected (thanks bob)
- Xy seperation = 1mm (this is me)
- Infill
- Gyroid
- 15% most places
In addition I had to replace some missing screws and generally clean up the model. I labeled more of the parts. The screws are ill-advised as they don’t print that well on close inspection, too small) - If I had all the time in the world I would replace ALL of the screws with a better shape - the obj I imported has a hole in the center of each screw head (for the Ikea hex key) that looks awful at this scale.
For some reason at the top of the posts there was a problem with a missing layer, no idea what’s going on, this happens sometimes when I pull in a 3d model that wasn’t for 3dprinting. Anyway I insert a rectangular prism with the slicer to overlap that area, and the problem goes away (these are called “missinglayerrepair” in the parts view. Since I had them anyway I have set the infill of these sections to 25% (they are under the pegs) - I also set the infill of the pegs (called connectors) to 100% concentric.
Next up, I will try to print one of the actual bed sections. Here is what the slicer is telling me… ignore bed-6 as that’s the testbed where I print just a subpart (as above). Also, the bed-5 which is the pegs, I haven’t finished playing with them in the slicer yet.
Since I use Printed Solid Fillament which costs slightly less than $20/kg - it is clear I should just go to Target :-)
Kurt-A
Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!
Kurt Gluck
Interim status update…..Kurt Gluck
Update 4 on American Girl Bed
COPY OF PDF FILE WITH PICTURES INCLUDED ATTACHED
Printed a quadrant of the bed, one of the top sections.
Mistake: I wanted to make it easer to remove the supports, AND use slightly less support PLA AND to speed it up a bit - so i put gaps in all the supports.
Since the screws were two small to print with all their detail (they actually had little hex heads) - I painstakingly caped them all with small cylinders - looks good.
Open Issues (Suggestions wanted):
- Inspite of the full contact support the top rail of the left side of the bed, towards the back of my printer (yes there is a window over there in the room) shrunk…. I am using Printed Solid PLA and PETG if it matters.
- You can clearly see geometry changes on one side of a ‘plank’ expressed on the other - sort of the Benchy hull line issue with a vengeance
Issues:
- some marred overhangs, bridges dont look as good on the bottom as the FULL contact useing PETG interface supported areas - Going to go to no bridges for next section
- a couple of my supports fell over, which would have been more serious except my wife noticed, I put the supports back and put some packing tape to hold them in place. The printer sort of recovered, the PETG interface went down gloppy in those spots and would have caused a head crash except I reached in with a pair of cutters and trimmed the vertical extra off before the printer got back to that spot…. Hopefully my undoing the gaps in the supports will make them less likely to do this. This is caused because the supports that are on top of the model are on top of PETG interface in between, and while this works well for not marring - easy to remove is also easy to fall off
- the holes for the pegs to aid glueing may have printed slightly smaller than to make putting the pegs in ok — if this is a problem I can print smaller pegs
You should be able to view my files in the following dropbox folder:
Next 3mf file (with the gaps in supports removed): ikea-mydal-scaled-08.3mf
You can see all the settings for the filaments etc in the 3mf file.
Kurt-A
Kurt Gluck
Full document as a PDF is an attachment including pictures
Update 5 on American Girl Bed - oh oh
On my previous update we saw two issues:
- some deformity, what was happening was the long runs of PLA would shrink and pull off the PETG, resulting in the layers compressing as the nozzle kept pushing down on them (sort of like a subduction plate :-)).
- Some of the Petg foundation supports detaching from the model
So… I press forward thinking that maybe this was being caused by keeping the enclosure closed. I go to print the 3rd section with the enclosure open. Starts out great…. Then last night the Long support across the front of the printer that is on top of PLA detaches - I catch it and using packin tape I manage to get it back where it belongs and the print continues “successfully”.
I figure ok, maybe instead of using rectilinear snug supports I will use rectilinear-grid snug supports on the last section. See the portion of the supports that are doing this, so far are the ones where the rectilinear pattern has LONG lines not short lines.
I go to sleep, letting section 3 continue: and this morning I wake up to a mess.
Lets talk about this
D: section 2 that I printed, didnt come out that well, I thought perhaps it’s because the enclosure was closed and it was making the PLA warp etc. The full contact supports besides using more plastic than the model worked like a charm by the way
C: you can see the support pulling away (this is section 3 on the right), this is what leads to the disaster. It’s because the warp in the PLA is stronger than the PETG/PLA bond.
I am thinking that if I change the model so that where the upper level is split in half I add another actual vertical beam (copy “A” over to “B” (both sides)) and either do the split in the middle of that vertical beam, then that vertical beam will eliminate the thin cantilevered arms that are pulling up.
Before I proceed I am have enough printed so I can measure what I have vs the real dolls. I want to check, I feel the entire bed is too long, and if so since I am faced with reprinting most/all of it, this is a good time to check.
All of this is on my dropbox which previous updates gave the path to, my most recent 3mf file is: ikea-mydal-scaled-11.3mf
Kurt Gluck
Update 5 on American Girl Bed
Did a lot of work on the model. It is interesting how much editing you can do in Prusaslicer. There was significant rework here because some of the work I did before was AFTER I had cut the bed up, which was a mistake.
The biggest change, is the top of the bed when I cut it in half had very very long rails that were cantilevered - these were held up by supports but because I was using PETG interface (for zero contact) the issue was that the curling of the PLA would pull the cantilever up off the support. SO when looking at the bed, you see that the top section had two vertical boards on each side, I decided that I would add a third set at the center with the cut running through it. This way it wouldn’t be cantilevered. However this would result in the cut running through its fake-screws. So I decided to change the screw patterns on all of the now 6 vertical upper supports so that they wouldnt but cut through.
I also increased the infill and perimeters of these vertical posts.
Before I didn’t actually cut the bed truly in half, but my cut was offset from the center in one direction on the top and the other on the bottom bunk. Now since I want it truly cut in half (see above) this would mean I would cut the mattress supporting slats in half at the center (since the bed had an odd number of slats). The solution to this was to reduce the number of slats by one on each level and to enlarge all the slats to make up for that. This required alot of headache inducing math (there was a spreadsheet involved). ((Credit to my wife for helping me work out the math)) The hard part was calculating the offsets of the centers of the new slats so they would position correctly. Of course this is made worse since the slicer works only down to hundredths of a mm, and the bed when decided by the number of slats and slat gaps comes out to .005 increments and other strange stuff. So like every third slat the center moves by one hundredth of a mm more (or something like that).
While I was changing all the slats I decided to thicken each of the slats by 1mm, to make them a little less bendy. I also increased the infill and perimeters of the slats.
The 4 long vertical posts that hold up the upper levels I decided to enlarge slightly, since they are turned 90degrees from the above mentioned vertical upper level posts and since the bed was scaled non proportionally they look better if they are closer dimensionally to the others. This also makes them stronger. Ans I also increase the infill and perimeters of them.
The exhausting task was replacing ALL of those fake screws again. Since I have done that BEFORE cutting up the model I hope to never have to do it again.
The names the girls gave to the dolls have to both be on both levels - the way I had it was a non-starter for my customers.
TRICK: in order to work on the bed before cutting it up in the slicer it is much easer if it fits on the virtual printers bed, so I go into the slicers config and make the printer’s dimensions 1 meter cubed. I won’t slice this way, but it makes working on the model easer. Also setting the coordinate system of the printer so that the center of the bed is the zero point and positioning the center of the bed at 0x0 makes some of the math easer :-).
When replacing all the screws it helps to replace a bunch of screws in one part then to copy and paste those screws in the object browser, and adjust the pasted ones coordinates.
So, then I cut the bed into 4 hunks again - I had to “invalidate the cut information” whatever that means. I decided this time to use less pins since my previous test print showed that the pins would be very hard to place.
Then I set the printer’s config back to what it should be, repainted all the supports and I am now reprinting the model
Mydal-70.3mf holds the model I am printing
Mydal-60-supersizeprinter.3mf is the model before cutting it.
You can find both of these on printables:
https://www.printables.com/model/1348041-bunk-bed-ikea-mydal-scaled-for-american-girl-our-g/files
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Side note; Kurt-1 has made a bunch of good suggestions some of them I am not taking because I am trying a particular way of doing this. I am focusing on doing full contact supports with the model and the supports both being PLA but the support-interface being petg. This has advantages and disadvantages. The bigest advantage is no conflict on the bed temperature. The biggest disadvantage is that you double the number of PLA/PETG levels that interact, resulting in less stability of the support. This means I don't think I am going to be able to use organic/tree supports because I don't think they will be stable enough - but it might be a worthwhile experiment if I didn't want to actually get a bed sooner :-)
-----------------
I am writing this blog at this point so that someone can read how to waste time and fillament :-)
Kurt-A
Kurt Gluck
Kurt Gluck
Update 7 American Girl Bed - another failure
Sigh, So all the changes look good. The problem with the upwarpage mostly solved - BUT, the highest level of supports failed. Reviewing my video I see that the nozzle for the main PLA hits the PETG for some reason and dislodges the support.
I was so close! I was printing with the enclosure open I will go back to printing the next section with the enclosure closed… if that doesnt work I will have to reconsider my entire support interface with PETG with PLA model and snug supports.
Sigh
Kurt-A
Here you can see it as the printer finished. 2 defects, the obvious one, the top support dislodged across the front.
FIRST PICTURE
Turning it upside down you see where the support was missing the horrific underside
SECOND PICTURE
But notice here , along the side - though that support was not dislodged the top level here also has a bad underside. It seems the PETG was missing here (perhaps it dislodged by itself, I didnt notice where it ended up).
THIRD PICTURE
What’s so sad is how great it looks when it works
LAST PICTURE
Kurt Gluck
Attached PDF file has pictures
Update 8 American girl bed
Well that didn’t work
Stoped the print this morning the
petg was curling off the pla
So the enclosure closed was a bad idea
Anyone have any ideas?
The petg is the clear
The pink pla is the model and the green pla is supports
3D Printing Tips and Tricks
Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!
Kurt Gluck
Kurt Gluck
On Jul 12, 2025, at 3:58 AM, Kurt Gluck <kur...@gmail.com> wrote:
Andy — I am going to try to model my own supports rather than let the slicer create them, I will try to attache the multiple levels of PETG to each other for stability.
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Kurt Gluck
Update 9 American girl bed
Upon advice of Andy and Kurt-1 I have moved towards designing my own supports fully out of petg. For the beds slats so far I am staying by with the slicers snug/grid supports as these have not been falling over.
I have been doing test prints of a corner of the bed to see how they work. All design work has been done fully in prusaslicer which is not the best tool for this but my utility belt consists of prusaslicer and tinkercad.
Results:
Mostly success
The supports stayed in place.
Settings modified: “0.2mm Soluble Interface@XLS 0.4
Filament settings based on Pruasament PLA/PETG with modifications.
BED TEMPERATURE IS 80 or the PETG doesn’t stick, this is causing an elephants foot in the PLA (see last picture)
TABLE IN PDF WITH SETTINGS!
ISSUE 1: poor extrusion, can my 15 month old 0.4mm Obxidian nozzles be wearing out? Do I have the wrong settings? No idea….
ISSUE 2 “A”: some ugly stuff in the PLA where the seam may be I think, not sure why…
ISSUE 3 “B”: the standard supports have really bad extrusion.
Saying all of the above, the FULL CONTACT PETG supports worked great!
ISSUE 4 “C”: elephants foot in the PLA - though wonderful undersides!
Kurt-A (the other Kurt, the one who likes to hit his head against the wall :-) )
Kurt
Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!
Kurt Gluck
As with all of these, the attached PDF has the pictures the text references as well as the text....
Update 10 American girl bed
I have been doing test prints of a corner of the bed to see how they work. All design work has been done fully in prusaslicer which is not the best tool for this but my utility belt consists of prusaslicer and tinkercad.
Well, I lowered the temperature I was printing PETG at 265, lowering it to 250 and suddenly the extrusion issues went away.
Lots of stringing, but that can be explained by my PETG being out and the fact that I had 2 inches of water in my lower basement (printer is 1/2 level higher than that), so everything is damp. (We had a state of emergency in NJ it rained so hard, and I lost power for 4 hours so no sump pump during that period) —————————————>
I know its never wet fillament, but I am sure if I dry the stuff it will get better :-)
ISSUE: Still having significant issues with warpage of the PLA. I am going to put a floor fan pointed at the printer to see if that does anything.
Picture Key: W-> Warpage, S-> Stringing,
E -> Elephants foot (from bed too hot), U -> Underside
The slicer working in hundredths width positioning from the center of parts caused an empty 0.2mm layer between my custom support and the underside (U). I have enlarged the part by a small amount, and the slicer no longer shows me the empty layers - so next try !
Kurt-1, the printer is in an enclosure but it is open. I am somewhat at a loss about the PLA warpage. I am going to try again (along with the above underside change) to have a floor fan aimed at the printer to see if that helps….
Suggestions welcome,
Kurt-A
david merten
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Sophie
Kurt Gluck
Update 11 American girl bed
I have been doing test prints of a corner of the bed to see how they work. All design work has been done fully in prusaslicer which is not the best tool for this but my utility belt consists of prusaslicer and tinkercad.
The undersides of the last try looked very good!
Now if only I can get the warpage (again this is the previous try) under better control. This is why I have the floor fan, and I am reducing the bed temperature etc.
Also the print time has crept up.
PS: I don’t post after each attempt, some experiments are major steps backwards and best just forgotten.
Kurt Gluck
Update 11 American girl bed
Let me start out by thanking; Bob, Andy, Sophie, and of course Kurt-1 (in spite of the beard, maybe he isn’t evil :-) )
Next print, I am going to try the 4th build plate for real with the actual fillament.
Kurt-A
Since Extruder 2 is free, I have a small spool on Extruder 1, and a full spool of the same fillament on 2. I am using to XL’s spool join feature. Only annoyance is I have to remember to set that up on the printer each print, I can’t do it remotely using Prusa Connect or Prusa Link.
You can view my files in the following dropbox folder:
My most current .3mf file (the one with the settings is Mydal-94-bed4.3mf .
The reason for the “bed4” in the name, is that though you can hold multiple print beds in a single 3mf file, when you send the job to the printer it gets named after the 3mf file. I sort of like to know which printbed each job represents so I will keep changing the name of the 3mf file :-).
Anyway, here is my test print result. The undersides came out great. The seam is an issue, but I can live with it. The orange colors will be PINK and PURPLE (slats) in the actual bed, the gray is petg support. The screws here are green but will be gray (PLA) in the actual bed.
Still have the fan—->
Undersides & ugly seam VVVVVV
Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!
Kurt Gluck
On Jul 20, 2025, at 12:26 PM, Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!! <vr...@optonline.net> wrote:
I gotta say - and I don't say this to be critical or mean - but, Wow - trying to follow what you're doing can be a bit rough on my brain!
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Kurt Gluck
Update 13 American girl bed First Quarter Printed!
Success!
The first quarter of the bed, a lower section has printed and looks good.
Ok, Kurt-1 had some questions - yes I have said that I don’t like Glue, but this doesn’t mean I won’t use it if there is no other way. The total bed is 400mm tall and 540mm long. This does not fit on my XLs printbed ( a true 340x340x340 not counting a wipe tower :-) ). So at a minimum I had to cut the bed into 4 sections. I used Prusaslicers cut tool, and have pins to assist in glueing it back together. I decided to cut the model just below the top bed frame to minimize support. I also cut it in half across its length. Yes I know there are other cutting it up schemes, ones that would result in a stronger bed, but in exchange for more glueing, which ugh. In addition, the bottom bed frame is on “legs”. In order to reduce the amount of lower support material, and significant print time, I decided (and I have gone back and forth on this decision) to cut the “legs” off. This means I will have 8 parts when I am done (plus pegs to help in placement).
The floor fan is gone - I believe because of the minor flood in my basement, I had humidity issues, and that has since passed.
I didn’t yet have any bed adhesive, and the mouse ears started to look suspicious so I put magnets on them while printing.
Next up a picture of the underside with the PETG supports before they were removed. For this section it is RED PETG, You will see all sorts of colors for that since while the BED is blue/pink with grey screws I have no care what color the supports are.
The tiny pin holes in the pink to the top right and left are for the pins to glue the legs on.
THE UNDERSIDE LOOKS GREAT! The Petg was not that difficult to remove, it is on so tight that I do have to sort of chop through it. I am also increasing the holes that go through it to make that easer.
I have since started the other half of the lower level, and though I have some magigoo (thanks Sophie for the advice) on hand now, I forgot to apply it :-(. However I did beef up the mouse ears on the supports. I probably will deploy the magnets again in a few hours.
I am working through the 3mf files, increasing the version numbers as I go, as I add additional hidden reinforcements to the joints in the bed.
You can view my files in the following dropbox folder:
My most current .3mf file is Mydal-XXX.3mf where XXX is the version number of the file. I find saving often is important when working with Prusaslicer, a simple slip and you type the wrong number into a size or position field, and its easer to go back a file then to figure out what you did wrong.
Sorry I make Kurt-1’s head hurt, you should see mine. My wife is a prusaslicer widow.
Kurt-A
PS: why am I writing this, well if for no other reason that to confuse the LLM AI's that are being trained on all of our google associated content. Just think, someone in 50 years will ask it to design a doll bed, and it will do all sorts of stupid stuff I have done :-!
Kurt
Kurt Gluck
Update 14 American girl bed
whew ….
If anyone is looking at my files, the current version of the .3mf file is: Mydal-100.3mf
You can view my files in the following dropbox folder:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/uussjmdw079qes2znrptf/
ANlY9uncaQp_2_9hlXbWdUI?rlkey=9lfri96ajvalth1rvo19g32rs&st=frh3et04&dl=0
I was having LOTS of trouble with the built in supports.
As with my custom supports they are PETG vs PLA for the model.
Simple extrusion issues became magnified.
An easy fix for this was to rotate the angle of the support panel from 0 to 45 degrees. This slows the print slightly but in my case it eliminates the very thin very long runs.
I still see problems with the PETG getting blobby or stringy but since there are far less very very long lines, they tend to be easer to just sort of self correct.
BAD IDEA: changing the pattern from Rectilinear to Rectilinear Grid, which youtuber Makersmuse has indicated works by switching 90 degrees every other support layer.
DID NOT WORK! I am staying with SNUG Rectilinear with the 45 degree angle.
Don’t forget when mixing PETG with PLA you should pick which material your wipe tower structure is made out of by assigning the “Wipe tower extruder”. Sadly you can’t give a list. The PETG will be wiped on the tower but the structure of the tower will be the one assigned.
YES ANDY THIS STILL IS NOT GREAT
In my case, 1,2,3,4 are PLA and 5 is PETG.
Also, you should pick “Bed temperature by extruder” which is a new feature, and gets rid of the slicer error where your bed temps didn’t match.
To increase adhesion (thanks Sophie) I finally decided to go with a bed adhesive. I am using magigoo. This is before Magigoo———>
I also got fed up with the printed solid petg and decided to to with PRUSAMENT (its yellow). Blobs a bit less, but still not perfect.
I don’t want to gum up my Prusa build plates with the maggot so I am using a FYSETC build plate that I got it when it was very cheep when they were first introducing them for the XL. Its thinner and not as robust as the PRUSA plates. Hilariously the adhesion was now SO GOOD and thinner build plates magnetic stick was so much less that at least once I lost the print because instead of the wipe tower falling over the entire plate moved!
In this case my PETG filament config is modified to set its first layer bed temperature down to 70. Which of course is pushing my PLA up to 70. My first attempt with the prusament still had the wipe tower fall over, JUST as it was done using it. ———————>
I let this section #3 complete, and after removing the excess plastic, there is only minor scaring which I will accept for the current attempt at assembling the full bed as I really need to assemble one and see if its structure is sufficient, or do I have to modify the design when faced with actual play!
I got better at applying the magigoo and I increased first layer bed temp to 75, with subsequent layer bed temps to 70 ————>
Resulting in section 4
There is an issue that the supports I designed for the sides are difficult to remove since they they have to be cut before removing. Lucky I have the portholes in them :-)
Whose underside is a thing of beauty——>
Still have a ‘hull’ line like in the benchy - but…
I have all 4 sections, plus the little legs, and pins for helping to glue it up in 4 different diameters
Next up, we get to see how very bad at glue I am!
Kurt-A
3D Printing Tips and Tricks
Kurt Gluck
Petr Ptacek
Make sure you get proper viscosity (low for precision surfaces, high for uneven surfaces) and do proper surface prep (sanding and cleaning) to get the best results.
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3D Printing Tips and Tricks
Michael Vohs
Kurt Gluck
Update 15 American girl bed
Glued ….
If anyone is looking at my files, the current version of the .3mf file is: Mydal-101.3mf
You can view my files in the following dropbox folder:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/uussjmdw079qes2znrptf/
ANlY9uncaQp_2_9hlXbWdUI?rlkey=9lfri96ajvalth1rvo19g32rs&st=frh3et04&dl=0
My neighbor came over and helped my glue it up.
GLUE
Thanks for the glue-advice. (SEE PDF FILE FOR DETAILS)
So, Bob Smith industries actually has customer support on their website, so I contacted them (Thanks Petr) - anyway I asked which product they would recommend and they got back to me, so I decided to try their product.
My wife ordered the combo pack from amazon of the Insta-Cure+ and Maxi-Cure Bob Smith Industries.
(So, here’s a plug, I appreciate companies that give help).
Interesting fact I learned, is that one of things CA glue DOES NOT STICK TO is CA GLUE! This is why re-repair, or re-glueing never seems to work well.
The reply from BOB SMITH Industries when I asked which of their many products they would suggest:
Both our Insta-Cure+ and Maxi-Cure, used with our Insta-Set, work best on the 3D plastics. I prefer the extra thickness of the Maxi. The Insta-Set is sprayed on the outside of the joints to cure the CA that usually oozes out when the parts are joined.
Charlee Smith www.bsi-inc.com
National Sales Manager 1 (805) 466-1717
Bob Smith Industries, Inc. Paso Robles, CA
the method my neighbor likes, differing from Charlee Smith’s advice, but in line with the packaging for difficult to glue objects, is to put the CA glue on one part, and the accelerant on the other.
PINS
Prusaslicer will cut the model for you, and let you place PINS for alignment. It generates the pins to print even. The Pins were 6mm x 5mm. I printed a number of scaled down pins as well. I found that using a shortened 5mm pin was a better idea. Also, in some cases where do to slight warpage whatever, I used a 2.97 x 5mm pin. I also used the 2.97 pins for one of the two pins for each leg, since the second pin was completely to keep the leg from rotating and I didn’t want to fight with it. I produced my scalled down pins by copying the ones that the slicer produced and just manipulating the dimensions. I also printed more pins that I needed, and frankly I should have printed even more. When you drop a pin outside - its gone to pin-heaven.
PETG for PLA ZERO CONTACT Support - a win!
Takes work, and causes some print failures - required manual design of some of the supports etc. But super clean undersides. The blue slats use slicer generated supports but all the rest of the supports were custom designed.
Look at that magnificent underside
it is just wonderful
What’s next
So, the bed has to be given to the twins for testing. If it proves to not be strong enough, I already have ideas on how to make it stronger. Will require lots of work, since I did everything in the slicer, no cad - I will have to go back to the full bed before cutting it, and reinforcing it. My plan would be to extend the three vertical supports of the back slats of the back of the bed all the way to the ground. I would also extend that interior vertical ladder support all the way to the ground as well. Thus the top of the bed instead of being supported by only 5 ‘beams’ and the bottom by only 4 ‘legs’ would all be supported by 8 ‘beams’.
Currently printing a dresser for the dolls.
Also using zero contact supports !
Thanks !
Kurt-A
Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!
Kurt Gluck
On Aug 19, 2025, at 7:27 PM, Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!! <vr...@optonline.net> wrote:
Glad to see you got the project completed - re: Printing - and then Glued. I hope it stands up to RIGOROUS Twinners BETA Testing (I think Twinners was a Stephen King Term in one of his novels).
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Kurt Gluck
Kurt Gluck
Kurt Gluck
Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!
This sucker looks SO SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kurt Gluck
Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!
Please - DO Tell - or give updated pic.
Kurt Gluck
The Adaptive cubic infill works on the same principle as cubic. It consists of cubes oriented corner-down where lines cross themselves in one layer. Unlike simple cubic infill, this infill gets automatically more or less dense, depending on the distance to the nearest wall, leaving large cavities in the middle. This is especially useful for large prints with a big internal volume. The print will have denser infill at the top, bottom and around all sides, but it will have lower density near the center of the volume. The result is shorter print timeand lower filament consumption while maintaining great support for top layers and similar mechanical properties. Material consumption is approx. 1/4 less than the rectilinear infill.
“
Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!
Kurt Gluck
Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!
Is the Clear a PETG & the Reddish Pink a PLA? Are there more colors that just the Reddish PLA? Would be nice to also see the bed with supports removed. Also, are the Slats printed in a different color? I can't really tell from this pic!
darrel...@gmail.com
3D Printing Tips and Tricks
Yeah cool print, but Kurt… I gotta admit, if it were me and I knew I was going to make multiples, I would have parted it into the front and the back with the cross beams separate. Then assembled afterward. No supports at all. It would print way easier and faster.
Sophie
Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!
Kurt Gluck
Kurt Gluck
Sophie
Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!
Kurt Gluck
Kurt Gluck
