{"id":18267,"date":"2026-03-11T20:04:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/princessleia.com\/journal\/?p=18267"},"modified":"2026-03-11T20:04:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:04:00","slug":"the-3d-printed-index-typewriter-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/princessleia.com\/journal\/2026\/03\/the-3d-printed-index-typewriter-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The 3D printed Index Typewriter: Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in December the Index Typewriter – AEG Mignon<\/a> popped up on Thingiverse. Having just bought a 3d printer, and being subscribed to some typewriter forums, this was very much aligned with my interests and I heard about it rather quickly. But surely, this is much too ambitious of a build for a newcomer to 3d printing! But MJ was up to the challenge, and we began tackling it on February 7th.<\/p>\n

To back up a moment: What’s an Index Typewriter? Instead of using a keyboard with an arm for each key (or combination of keys), an index typewriter instead uses a flat reference “index” that you use a stylus with to point to the letter you want. The stylus is connected to the Type Element that rolls to your letter, number, or symbol when you hit a lever to strike. Ultimately, it’s a much simpler design than traditional typewriters, which made it an excellent choice for the world’s first 3d printed typewriter!<\/p>\n

Also, if this sounds vaguely familiar, Madame Morrible uses a Mignon index typewriter in Wicked: For Good<\/em>. It’s right after the scene where The Wizard is sitting in front of an Oliver typewriter. I was delighted!<\/p>\n

Anyway, I printed the Index_Typewriter_Hardware_and_Printing_Guide.pdf<\/em> and Index_Typewriter_Assembly_Guide.pdf<\/em> so I could peruse offline, and ultimately use it for assembly. The first thing I’ll say about these is that the author, Keenan Finucan, did a spectacular job. They’re detailed and every step has pictures to help figure out the correct placement of things, and photographs where needed. I only needed to ask for a handful of clarifications throughout this process so far.<\/p>\n

I bought this spring set<\/a> on Amazon, which had almost all the spring sizes I needed (and the missing smaller one I was able to cut down from a larger) and picked up a standard black ribbon (which you can still buy at all sorts of places). From there, I selected my colors: Purple and Magenta PLA+. The “Rubber” components were printed in Gray TPU 95A. I then carefully went through all 150+ parts and renamed them which color I wanted them to be, whether they’d need high infill, and numbered them so they were being printed by order of assembly. I then uploaded them to our shared drive and asked MJ to print them for me (remember I said I’m still afraid to use a slicer and send it to the printer? I’ll get there). Tip: Though 3mf files can<\/em> include a lot of details like nozzle size, these ones aren’t written that way and it’s best to just follow the Printing Guide.<\/p>\n

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Let’s be honest, it’s taking weeks to print everything, even with our shiny new Bambu H2D. In addition to working full time and having two young kids, we had to go through a couple cycles of drying the PLA+ filament, and MJ spent A LOT of time meticulously going through all the files I marked and plating them, then queuing up the plates so we could do the printing strategically with time and filament usage in mind.<\/p>\n

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Things started off quite nice and tidy.<\/p>\n

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And quickly descended into chaos with all the parts.<\/p>\n

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Most of the prints went well, but there were a few mishaps. MJ had to add a large brim along with the plate glue to the Paper Feed Panel.3mf<\/em> because it shifted slightly during an overnight print, and things were not good in the morning. The printer figured out it had a problem much later while printing the platen core on the same plate, and thankfully MJ was able to salvage that and finish that print.<\/p>\n

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As I went through the instructions, there were a few sections which were somewhat unclear (Keenan might have fixed these by now, he’s been amazing with swiftly answering my questions!):<\/p>\n