3d Printing a Basement for a Dollhouse

[Kurt A 3d]

Kurt-1 thought you all would be interested in what I (Kurt-A) have been up to.

Follow this link for the 3mf file and some more pictures.

https://www.printables.com/model/1759091-basement-for-a-dollhouse-112-scale

I have for over a month been working on a basement for an existing dollhouse.  One of my grandaughters has a dollhouse that was build for her mother (my Daughter In Law).   It was built for my Daughter In Law by her now deceased father.    I decided it could be larger but I didn't want to take away from its heirloom status.   So I decided to create a basement for it.  

Starting with a tinkercad model for a cinderblock.  

I placed a ton of these blocks in Prusaslicer.  Added Mortar.   Then decided that It would print better (less plastic) with in most cases a solid block, so I modified the block in Tinkercad.   I also created a window in Tinkercad.   I found a royalty free jpg of a crack, I converted that into an SVG.   

I can go into much more detail about some of the tricks I used in the slicer, if there is an interest. 

The basement takes 3 XL print beds to print plus 2 more for the floor of the basement.   Total print time will be more than 15 days assuming nothing goes wrong.  Something always goes wrong :-).  

I have finished 2 of the 3 sections so far.   

[Kurt A 3d]

Basement complete and installed

[Kurt A 3d]

[Kurt A 3d]

[Bryan Eckert]

That looks great!!

On Sat, Jun 27, 2026 at 12:18 AM Kurt A 3d <kur...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

Yeah Bryan - this project of his was Insane - the amount of Work just to Design the whole basement was NUTS. You all are lucky enough to see the finished basement w/doll house above it - which I had not yet seen. 

He should tell you the background (w/more pics) behind the Bugs and Rat in the basement - as it's TRULY Funny Arse Stuff!!!

-K

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Kurt… did you 3d print that whole thing?

[Kurt A 3d]

A copy of a slightly different version (missing some last minute fixes) is on printables if you want to see it.  I may update it when I get a chance. 

  https://www.printables.com/model/1759091-basement-for-a-dollhouse-112-scale

One reason it is not easy is that the actual basement has an inscription on the underside that the uploaded one doesn't have.  Having spent a career in IT, I am more circumspect with pictures and information about grandkids and kids (both my sons are also in IT). 

I 3d printed the Basement (purple, yellow, gray, pink).  The dollhouse above the basement existed and was made by my daughter in laws long time deceased father.   My daughter in laws daughter now plays with her mothers (my daughter in law) dollhouse.   She (my granddaughter) has never met her other grandfather (the one who built the dollhouse). 

Over the past couple of years I have been printing furniture for the dollhouse (1/12 scale).  Some items I download and modify (dresser, flowerpots, flowers, cat-tree, cats) some items I almost completely design.  The bunk bed is a design that I acquired a 3d rendering from Ikea and converted to a printable model and significantly modified.  

I have been looking at the house (which formally sat on a box) and thinking how could I enlarge it WITHOUT taking away from its creator.     I decided to make a basement.  

I started with a cinderblock: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4212534 and built up the entire basement in prusaslicer.   I added mortar in-between the the cinderblocks.  Slicing it I found that the internal geometry of the cinderblocks were more than I wanted. SO around the edges there are still complete cinderblocks, but most of the blocks were individually replaced one at a time with blocks that I had modified in tinkercad (basically I filled in the holes in the center of the blocks but kept their end geometry).    

Besides the blocks, there is of course the mortar, the base and the 3 windows.  I designed the windows in tinkercad loosely based on my houses basement windows, did a test print with random fillament and had to modify various dimensions to make it more robust. Like my house the windows have leaks :-).  The window glass is some old overhead projector transparency slides cut to shape. 

The blocks have the FUZZY skin property (on the blocks), except for the ones that go through the CUT zones.  I found that when you cut a model the fuzzy skin property will wrap around through the cut zone. For those blocks I had to remove the property and paint on the fuzzy skin on the faces I wanted.   

I landed up giving almost every single block a unique identifier in the slicer.  

 It's about 610 x 284 x 235 mm about 24 x 11 3/16 x  9 1/4 inches. The base (gray) of the basement is cut in half to fit on the XL (it doesn't need much of a wipe tower as it's only a few mm high).   The main part of the basement is cut into 3 sections. 

The main part uses alignment pins, the base uses a puzzle like connection for the 2 halfs.  And there is sort of a channel I made in the base (by putting negative blocks in the slicer (sort of) on top of the base). 

The main parts are printed upside down of course to minimize supports.  Still due to fear there are much more supports than needed requiring significant time to carefully pick off.  I used PLA for the model and PETG for the supports FULL CONTACT!.

I printed this very slowly took about 15 days more or less, I think.     5 prints.  One day of very scared glueing.

MAJOR GLUE TRICK....  In reading about printing polypropylene I learned it doesn't like to stick to any other plastic.  Some  quick web searching and I saw that packing tape (the 3m scotch stuff you get at Costco) is polypropylene.  I coated the top of a table with packing tape.  WHEN I GLUED THE BASE TOGETHER AND THE GLUE LEAKED UNDER it did NOT stick significantly to the packing tape !!!!

I purchased significant supplies of each of the colors of fillament under the theory that stuff often goes wrong.   ALMOST NOTHING WENT WRONG, one failed print within 1/2 an inch of the print bed only.  SO I have lots of each color left :-).  

Replacing it now you can see the aprox print time and usage.  Prusaslicer with the XL gives a reasonably spot on estimate of this. 

MAJOR TIPS: if you are insane and decide to model something large in the slicer 

*) During your design phase lie to the slicer and enlarge the settings in the slicer for your printer so that it things the bed is large enough for your entire model

*) Really consider giving each and every part a unique name

*) When you are ready to cut it to shape you set the printer size back 

Funny stuff...

My DIL (daughter in law) hates bugs.  I took someone's spider (this is not in the model I uploaded) scalled it down and placed lots of them on/in a mat 1 layer thick of clear fillament.  This way the tiny bugs dont make a mess.  I printed a number of these mats of spiders so the basement is infested.   They are loose (the mats) - the granddaughter lovers them,

Also, my DIL HATES RATS but is a former pastry chief and likes RATATOUILLE - I took someones model for that fixed up its eyes and tail (I may upload this to printables when I get a chance)  gave it fuzzy skin and he was hideing behind some loose cinderblocks that were in the basement.   

Also in the rear left hand corner there is a depression for a sump pump :-).

I think this has been almost 2 months of my life - I delivered it yesterday (Friday) I am now suffering from POST PROJECT DEPRESSION (letdown),   I mean for the past few weeks whenever I closed my eyes I saw cinderblocks. 

Today I spent the day doing most of my XL's maintance cycle.  LONG overdue.   I still want to do some recalibrations but... see above letdown. 

PS: Other granddaughters (the twins) have requested a 1/16 dollhouse for their new toys  - for that I will download one from makerworld someone else has done.

- Kurt-A (The other non evil kurt who is insane)

[Kurt A 3d]

Typos: Replacing it now -> Resliceing it now

Also I forgot, the YELLOW wood beams were derived from the bed I designed, thus they aren't perfect rectangles but have a slight narrowing at the edges like real wood.       

Kurt-A 

[Kurt A 3d]

Oh I almost forgot.   The right hand column has an SVG of a crack I converted from a royalty free JPG of a crack.    

[Anthony Rothert]

That is awesome!  I'm curious as to how you went about building in it Prusaslicer.  You said started with a single cinder block model; did you then clone, position, and stack all of the blocks and mortar pieces within the slicer to make 1 complete model?  I saw the Printables page is just 1 project file.  If that's how you did it, its really really impressive.  How did you go about aligning all of the parts as necessary in the slicer if this is the case?  Did you use the assemble feature and mate the parts face to face?  I can't say doing this in something like Fusion360 is any easier.  I've done brick and mortar features using sketches, patterns, and embossing... and its painful mostly because the amount of lines made in sketches cause insane computations that can cause Fusion to crash.  

[Kurt Gluck]

First you enlarge the definition of your printers print bed to be big enough to hold the entire model.   Dont worry you will set it back before printing.

Then put down a cinder block.   Using a spreadsheet you can calculate the x,y location of the next block.  The slicer stores the position of the block as its center in x/y/z

Lets define some concepts

B1x B1y B1z block 1 x, y , z coordinate

Lx, Ly, Lz the length of a block

M = thickness of mortar

So the start of block 1 is SB1x = B1x - ( Lx/2 ) ,  SB1y = B1y - (Ly/2),  SB1z = B1z - (Lz/2)  

End of block 1 is  EB1x = B1x + ( Lx/2 ) ,  EB1y = B1y + (Ly/2),  EB1z = B1z +  (Lz/2)  

Thus to calculate the position of block 2 B2x B2y B2z  assuming it is in he same row as block 1 in y and z

B2x = B1x + Lx+ M,   B2y = B1y, B2z = B1z 

You then copy and paste Blocks 1 & 2 selecting the copy you translate their X coordinate by 2( Lx + M )

You then copy and paste blocks 1,2, 3, 4 selecting the copy you translate their X coordinates by 4( Lx + M)

Rince repeat

You carefully lay out a wall this way.

You then copy and paste that wall then you select the copy and translate the z axis up by Lz+M , you have to translate the x axis to offset that row of bricks

You do this type of thing to get the first 2 rows of the basement, you then copy and paste the first 2 rows and translate them upwards by 2( Lz + M) 

You then copy and paste the 4 rows you have - you then translate the new 4 rows up by 2( Lz + M) 

Of course you have to figure out the corners.

 

Rince repeat

You find the position of all the mortar ( 1/2 Lx + B1x  ) or something like that

You make the mortar MUCH thicker than you need to

After you have all the mortar you copy and paste all your blocks so they now appear AFTER the mortar in the 3mf file.  You delete the copies of the blocks that were BEFORE the mortar.  The reason for this is the slicier will give a part that appears before another part a Lower build priority, this way you can make the mortar thicker than it needs to be but the blocks which come later will OVERRIDE the mortar. 

You then find you dont like the blocks and replace them all :-)

To do the columns you lay out one columns 4 blocks, then the second rows 4 blocks, then you upwardly copy and paste it translating as you go

Your wife becomes a prusaslicer widow 

Kurt-A

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[Anthony Rothert]

That's a great methodical way to do it!  I totally understand the widow and start all over jokes.  I am at the tail end of a several month project as well with a slate wiping restart mixed in.  It's really easy to fall into a time warp with highly detailed projects like these but they are super satisfying when complete.

[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

Dude - I know it was an INSANE Amount of work to do what you did!!! Astonishing in fact!

Now - this is NOT To Belittle what you did. But, I know in TinkerCAD - which you use - you could have made a Very simple wall. Similar to the one that is attached to this email (Doppleganger_Basement_Walls.stl).

Then bring it into  BumpMesh by CNC Kitchen to create the bricks - like this:

I exported a 3MF - which is also attached to this email. And, I brought it into the Slicer as such:

I did all of that in like 20 minutes. Now, I know what you're gonna say - Hey - the Bricks are Mortar are the same color/material - which is NO Bueno! Well - you KNOW I have a Solution for that...

-K

On Sunday, June 28, 2026 at 1:33:39 PM UTC-4 Kurt Gluck wrote:

[Kurt A 3d]

Kurt-1

Problems with this… the geometry if you look carefully, on the edges of the wall are actual cinder block shapes from the top, so you see into the void.  Also the top of the columns are like that, so when you look down between the joists.   

The corners of the walls, the edges of the blocks are cinder blocked shaped. 

Also the window cutouts require modified blocks and negative space that cant be added in the slicer as it would override the windows yet the bump meshed geometry would have more than the 25m triangles (I think thats the limit) that tinkercad would allow. 

Also it’s not just the color but the selective application of fuzzy skin to just the blocks and not the mortar.  

I have reason to believe that I couldnt import a model with the number of triangles your approach would imply into the slicer even.   As it was my high end 2 year old Mac Pro was pageing(swapping) I am reasonably sure  when operating on the model, adding a single part started to take a minute. 

I would love to see someone recreate the basement useing simpler methods.   Of course even if the approach tool 1/4 of the time it took me to create the model, it would take someone at least a week :0)

Kurt-A

[Kurt A 3d]

See, the edge (in red) is wrong,    Nit pick of course the ratio of the height and width of the blocks are wrong (mine are 1/12 scale of the actual nominal dimensions of a block you would buy at Home Depot with the mortar filling in the the space the nominal dimensions leave for mortar). 

Also sadly I dont have the fusion/drafting skills necessary to create the repeating pattern of two rows to stack so that the edge effects dot show up.       

Kurt-A