My kids and I have been tinkering with a 3D-printed paper-plane launcher. It's a little contraption powered by elastic bands: you pull back the slider, load a paper plane and squeeze the trigger to send it flying.

I'd originally printed the Ultimate Plane Launcher from MakerWorld, with no plans to make my own version. But it kept breaking, and once I started reinforcing the parts, there was a model to work on as well as a toy to play with. We've been making changes to the slider, joints and catch, trying to get it sturdy enough to keep using.

The 3D-printed paper-plane launcher on a wooden table, with a black body, blue trigger and fasteners, and red and yellow parts holding the elastic bands.

Making those changes used to be the part that took some of the fun out of projects like this. In the past, I've dabbled in Fusion 360 and Tinkercad, but I was average at best, and a significant change could take quite a while. With Astra1 helping on the model, I can describe what I'd like to change or give it an image with a few sketches on top. That makes it much easier to spend the time I have tinkering with the kids.

There's still plenty to work out once a part is printed. An extra guide we tried underneath the slider, for example, added friction and made the launch worse, so we took it back off again.

Being able to try things this way is what I really enjoy about using agents. I can explore a hobby without first committing a lot of time to learning the tools. Becoming an expert still takes time and effort, but I get to experiment and figure out whether it's something I want to get better at.

The launcher in action.

If you'd like to print one, I've put the complete Bambu Studio project on GitHub. All eleven parts are arranged on two plates for a Bambu Lab P1S with a 0.4 mm nozzle. The fasteners are printed too, so elastic bands are the only things you need to add.

I use PLA for everything except the slider, which I print in PETG for a bit more resistance to breaking. The saved projects use PLA profiles, so switch the slider to your PETG profile before slicing.

The printing and assembly notes cover putting it together. There are individual part downloads and editable sources in the repo too, so you can work on a part and print it again. Treat it as a prototype: the latest version still needs more testing to see how well it holds up.

Interested in making stuff with your kids? Pick a project you like on MakerWorld2 and start building on it together.3 ❤️

Footnotes

  1. Astra is a ChatGPT model, but you could just as well use another frontier agent for this. ↩

  2. Printables and Thingiverse are other places to find a project to start from. ↩

  3. I'm also building a four-player split-screen game set in a 3D world with the kids, using AI and Godot. Maybe that's another post. 🤔 ↩