Answers.Body: <p>Depends on your tolerance. :)</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>In the manufacture of LEGO bricks the machine tolerance is as small as
    <strong>10 my (0.01 mm)</strong>.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121209100137/http://cache.lego.com/upload/contentTemplating/AboutUsFactsAndFiguresContent/otherfiles/download98E142631E71927FDD52304C1C0F1685.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Company Profile. An introduction to the LEGO Group (2010)</a></p>
  
  <p>For me, 3D printing resolution would need to be pretty close to that.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-05-16T14:15:57.327Z
Answers.Text: Most are not. Most are 100 micrometers. Would it be sufficient?
Answers.UserDisplayName: ceving
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Answers.CreationDate: 2013-05-16T14:25:31.707Z
Answers.Text: The tolerance is given in the question. A child must be able to connect the bricks and they must not fall off. Which resolution is needed to achieve this?
Answers.UserDisplayName: ceving
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-05-16T18:14:02.317Z
Answers.Text: Goven that all teh dimensions in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lego_dimensions.svg are in 100 micrometer increments, in theory I'd say 'yes'. In practice, I'd want to try it out on a borrowed printer before sinking large sums of money into it.
Answers.UserDisplayName: gev
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Answers.CreationDate: 2013-05-17T11:19:41.047Z
Answers.Text: I don't understand the question. TLG have done tons of research on this, and they are a business so they don't want to be wasting money. So if they settled for the tolerance of 10 micrometers, then a tolerance of 100 micrometers is obviously not enough. Simple as that.
Answers.UserDisplayName: RegDwight
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-02-23T20:22:18.220Z
Answers.Text: @RegDwight _Not_ as simple as that, since we're talking about commercial production vs DIY. Lego (and any other manufacturer of _anything_) can't afford to check each piece by hand, so their tolerances need to be much smaller than those of someone printing a couple of bricks at home. Even at 100 bricks a day, that would still allow you to check each brick and recycle any bad ones.
Answers.UserDisplayName: SQB
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Answers.CreationDate: 2013-05-15T17:50:27.633Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-09-15T19:27:44.827Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2019-09-15T19:27:44.827Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: gev
Answers.Body: <p>According to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego#Manufacture" rel="nofollow noreferrer">WikiPedia</a>:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>The moulds are permitted a tolerance of up to two micrometres, to ensure the bricks remain connected.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>But, as I noted in a comment, that is in an industrial environment, where great care is taken to ensure that not just a one-off piece is right, but that the entire batch of pieces is right. They probably take a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sigma" rel="nofollow noreferrer">six sigma approach</a> or something similar.<br>
  In a DIY setting, that is not necessary. A certain percentage of faulty pieces can be tolerated, as a home manufacturer probably has the time to check each piece and recycle the faulty ones.</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/Lego_dimensions.svg/1000px-Lego_dimensions.svg.png" alt="Main dimensions of Lego bricks (WikiPedia)"></p>
  
  <p>The image above shows the main dimensions of Lego pieces. Based on its <a href="http://www.dimensionsinfo.com/dimensions-of-a-standard-lego-brick/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">source</a> and the measurements given in <a href="https://bricks.stackexchange.com/a/692/3176">this answer</a>, we get 8.0mm per 20 LDU, or 0.4mm/LDU.</p>
  
  <p>Since the smallest offset seen so far is <a href="https://bricks.stackexchange.com/a/2060/3176">0.3 LDU</a>, you would need at least a 0.12mm resolution to print <em>that brick</em>. But if you're printing pieces with a resolution of 1 LDU, you'd need a printer with at least a 1 LDU resolution.</p>
  
  <p>So it depends on the resolution of the pieces you want to print.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-02-26T10:50:09.463Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-12-27T08:24:05.517Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2019-12-27T08:24:05.517Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: SQB
Answers.Body: <p>I have actually tried 3d printing lego on a prusa i3 printer at I think 5 microns using PLA. I found that they worked fine initially but they quickly started to lose their grip. I think the issue was the layers grind against each other which wears them down rather than the brick walls flexing to grip. You certainly won't be getting anything close to the quality of real lego but you could print some cool custom parts.</p>
  
  <p>Here is a picture of the finished result of one of my brick prints:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/T7p5C.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/T7p5C.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2019-09-16T12:32:53.673Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-09-16T12:32:53.673Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Qwertie
Body: <p>I would like to print LEGO compatible figures. Which resolution is required for the 3D print in order to firmly fix the figures on LEGO bricks?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-05-15T15:53:17.130Z
Comments.Text: Let me guess... the minimum resolution that allows 0.1 LDU accuracy? (Since there are [1 LDU offsets](http://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/673/how-to-make-a-1-ldu-offset) and also [0.3 LDU offsets](http://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/2057/why-cant-i-reproduce-this-sd-card-box-in-ldd#comment2835_2060)) in the world of LEGO?
Comments.UserDisplayName: Alvin Wong
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-05-16T08:39:32.667Z
Comments.Text: See also [this answer](http://bricks.stackexchange.com/a/1283/56) to Has anyone made their own custom LEGO bricks.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Zhaph - Ben Duguid
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-08-04T07:14:36.743Z
Comments.Text: Producing affordable 10 micron 3d printers remains the single greatest engineering challenge of the last hundred years. ;)
Comments.UserDisplayName: Melody
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-05-11T09:15:40.987Z
Comments.Text: This sounds like something that would best be achieved with a resin printer. Layer height can approach the tolerances required.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Rugnir
Tags: <customization><cad><3d-printing>
Title: Which resolution is necessary to print bricks with a 3D printer?
UserDisplayName: ceving
ThreadText: # Which resolution is necessary to print bricks with a 3D printer?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2013-05-15)
  
  I would like to print LEGO compatible figures. Which resolution is required for the 3D print in order to firmly fix the figures on LEGO bricks?
  
  **Tags:** customization, cad, 3d-printing
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Let me guess... the minimum resolution that allows 0.1 LDU accuracy? (Since there are [1 LDU offsets](http://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/673/how-to-make-a-1-ldu-offset) and also [0.3 LDU offsets](http://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/2057/why-cant-i-reproduce-this-sd-card-box-in-ldd#comment2835_2060)) in the world of LEGO?  
  > **username_2**: See also [this answer](http://bricks.stackexchange.com/a/1283/56) to Has anyone made their own custom LEGO bricks.  
  > **username_3**: Producing affordable 10 micron 3d printers remains the single greatest engineering challenge of the last hundred years. ;)  
  > **username_4**: This sounds like something that would best be achieved with a resin printer. Layer height can approach the tolerances required.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 3 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2013-05-15. Score: 9
  
  Depends on your tolerance. :)
  
  > In the manufacture of LEGO bricks the machine tolerance is as small as
  > **10 my (0.01 mm)**.
  
  **Source:** [Company Profile. An introduction to the LEGO Group (2010)](https://web.archive.org/web/20121209100137/http://cache.lego.com/upload/contentTemplating/AboutUsFactsAndFiguresContent/otherfiles/download98E142631E71927FDD52304C1C0F1685.pdf)
  
  For me, 3D printing resolution would need to be pretty close to that.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Most are not. Most are 100 micrometers. Would it be sufficient?  
  > **username_0**: The tolerance is given in the question. A child must be able to connect the bricks and they must not fall off. Which resolution is needed to achieve this?  
  > **username_5**: Goven that all teh dimensions in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lego_dimensions.svg are in 100 micrometer increments, in theory I'd say 'yes'. In practice, I'd want to try it out on a borrowed printer before sinking large sums of money into it.  
  > **username_6**: I don't understand the question. TLG have done tons of research on this, and they are a business so they don't want to be wasting money. So if they settled for the tolerance of 10 micrometers, then a tolerance of 100 micrometers is obviously not enough. Simple as that.  
  > **username_7**: @RegDwight _Not_ as simple as that, since we're talking about commercial production vs DIY. Lego (and any other manufacturer of _anything_) can't afford to check each piece by hand, so their tolerances need to be much smaller than those of someone printing a couple of bricks at home. Even at 100 bricks a day, that would still allow you to check each brick and recycle any bad ones.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_7 on 2014-02-26. Score: 6
  
  According to [WikiPedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego#Manufacture):
  
  > The moulds are permitted a tolerance of up to two micrometres, to ensure the bricks remain connected.
  
  But, as I noted in a comment, that is in an industrial environment, where great care is taken to ensure that not just a one-off piece is right, but that the entire batch of pieces is right. They probably take a [six sigma approach](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sigma) or something similar.  
  In a DIY setting, that is not necessary. A certain percentage of faulty pieces can be tolerated, as a home manufacturer probably has the time to check each piece and recycle the faulty ones.
  
  ![Main dimensions of Lego bricks (WikiPedia)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/Lego_dimensions.svg/1000px-Lego_dimensions.svg.png)
  
  The image above shows the main dimensions of Lego pieces. Based on its [source](http://www.dimensionsinfo.com/dimensions-of-a-standard-lego-brick/) and the measurements given in [this answer](https://bricks.stackexchange.com/a/692/3176), we get 8.0mm per 20 LDU, or 0.4mm/LDU.
  
  Since the smallest offset seen so far is [0.3 LDU](https://bricks.stackexchange.com/a/2060/3176), you would need at least a 0.12mm resolution to print *that brick*. But if you're printing pieces with a resolution of 1 LDU, you'd need a printer with at least a 1 LDU resolution.
  
  So it depends on the resolution of the pieces you want to print.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_8 on 2019-09-16. Score: 4
  
  I have actually tried 3d printing lego on a prusa i3 printer at I think 5 microns using PLA. I found that they worked fine initially but they quickly started to lose their grip. I think the issue was the layers grind against each other which wears them down rather than the brick walls flexing to grip. You certainly won't be getting anything close to the quality of real lego but you could print some cool custom parts.
  
  Here is a picture of the finished result of one of my brick prints:
  
  [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/T7p5C.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/T7p5C.jpg)
  
  
  ---
  
  