1. Introduction

Not every Christmas tale begins in Santa’s workshop. Sometimes, the magic starts with a child asking Santa for a little extra help during this magical time of the year. This is the story of a little one who faced a busy holiday week filled with challenges—and how Santa, with help from “The Part Detective,” delivered the perfect solution just in time.

2. Case File: What Is the Part?

Santa is an old friend, we’ve done work for him on 3Dprinted Christmas presents before. This year, ole Kris Kringle reached out last minute as his sleigh was being packed by the elves.

Santa needed a series of customized fidget spinners tailored for a nervous little boy for Christmas. These weren’t just ordinary fidgets — they can be magical tools to help this boy stay calm and focused throughout the Christmas Holiday Break and at Holiday Family get togethers. Not to mention back at school in the new year.

The little boy wrote to Santa asking for some help to get through the holiday madness. Santa entrusted “The Part Detective” to design and 3D print these spinners on Christmas Eve, ensuring they’d be ready just in time for delivery. He’d pick them up at our house on the way and to leave them next to the cookies and milk. We were on the case!

3. What was the value-add for these parts?

For this child, the week of Christmas was full of excitement but also a lot of activity and distraction. He could get easily overstimulated and then act out, but he didn’t want to end up on the naughty list. Santa wanted to make him some Fidget Spinners, where each one had it’s own theme for different scenario’s the little boy would face over the next month and beyond:

“Breathe” for At Home: Anticipation for Christmas morning made it hard to sit still. This spinner, adorned with the word ‘ breathe’ was simple, but effective. The little boy said that focusing on breathe work helped him stay calm, but remembering to breathe was the hard part. A calming spinner helped channel that energy while waiting for the big day.

“Love” for Family Holiday Parties: Santa wanted to make sure that the boy had a reminder that family is about unconditional love, and even if things get loud or overstimulated (or Uncle Frank has too much ‘christmas spirit’ and starts rambling about politics) you can always focus on love. This fidget, adorned with a white heart would be a reminder that love always wins, if we remember it

A “Rocket” for School in the New Year. The boy told Santa he wanted to be an astronaut one day, and he’s trying very hard to get good grades. While he’s on break now, when he gets back to school he’s worried he’ll go back to his old routine of being a “perfectionist” and then get so nervous he can’t focus on work. Santa wanted to make sure we made a fidget just for school, to remind the boy of WHY he’s working so hard and remember to take it one day at a time.

So we dashed to the computer, opened the CAD program, and customized our Fidget model for the three toys Santa requested.

4. Investigation: Challenges We Faced

As with most “simple” projects, unexpected issues come up. Designing went without a hitch and our Prusa i3 MK3S+ was setup with the MMU3 and ready to 3Dprint all three at once.

Things started off fine, but then the extruder got clogged mid print, and the Part Detective sprang to action!

The filament wasn’t driving to the nozzle and kept grinding the filament
When we used our “poker” we were unable to free the filament, and it felt like if we pushed any harder, we’d either bend the metal rod or need to recalibrate the printer. Neither of these seemed like a good option

You can pick up one of these “Clog Pokers” for your 3Dprinting troubleshooting at home (affiliate link) | We are not sponsored by Creality

So we waited until the extruder cooled down and we removed the E3D Revo nozzle. No globs or strings, nothing of note. So we did what any mad scientist would do - we took apart the extruder to get to the PTFE tube to see what was the matter.

Inside we found a tiny blob of plastic material, something we usually don’t see - even on jobs that have alot of tool changes from using multicolor. Then we realized we switched the nozzle to our “high flow” 0.40mm standard nozzle which is great for one color - but the filament tip comes out different than the original one. This must have clogged in the tube on the last filament change.

So we sprang and rebuilt the extruder, swapped the high flow nozzle with the standard 0.40mm nozzle, and restarted the 3dprint! In 7 hours we had three beautiful Fidget Spinners for Santa to bring to the little boy, looking for focus and peace of mind.

5. The Cost of Bringing This Part to Reality

In our Etsy shop (ag3dprinting.etsy.com) we have these fidget spinners available now for $11.50/ea. The customized option was extra, but Santa is always good for it and we were happy to help.

Not bad for a present that can help this little boy so much in his day to day.

If you want to get one yourself, check out our listing here!

The cost for the purge tower (where the different color filaments purge before going into the part for crisp color changes) is built into the price of the part. We are saving these for a project in the future to reuse the material. But this is an unavoidable waste at this point. Some are mindful of this, but many are not.

Then there’s the cost of troubleshooting. That is something we plan for, but it rarely comes when expected. The best thing we can do is to grow our skills so we can address these things when they come up. The more skill we build, the faster we can solve the problem next time.

6. How “The Part Detective” Made It Easier

As Santa’s go-to last-minute 3Dprinting problem solver, “The Part Detective” ensured:

• Last-Minute Magic: We 3D-printed the spinners the day of, leaving them next to the milk and cookies so Santa could deliver them on time.

• Tailored Designs: Each spinner was optimized for a specific scenario, providing the anxious child some calm, focus, and joy.

• Quality Assurance: Every spinner was tested for smooth spinning and durability before Santa’s arrival.

7. Case Closed: The Final Part

On Christmas morning, the child awoke to a set of festive fidget spinners, each designed to help with all the scenarios they’d face in the next month and beyond. From the classroom to family gatherings, these fidget spinners would make the season brighter and less stressful so they could truly feel the magic of Christmas and the Holidays.

8. HOW WE CAN HELP ON YOUR NEXT 3DPRINTING PROJECT

Need a unique, thoughtful gift for the holidays—or a solution to keep the season running smoothly? “The Part Detective” is here to help!

Book 30 minutes with us to help 1 on 1 over video solve your next 3Dprinting challenge.

You can also visit our Etsy shop (ag3dprinting.etsy.com) to create your own personalized fidget spinners or find other great 3Dprinted gifts.

Another case closed for the Part Detective, and a happy customer and successful 3Dprinted part. Until the next Case File - stay curious and keep 3Dprinting!

Happy Holidays,

Alex G. Orphanos

The Part Detective

The Story of an Anxious Kid, Santa’s Request, and the Perfect Present