Original Articulated Animals: Further Designs

 

The Y7 student responsible for the recent production of a number of articulated animals has over the past week or so completed the design of a number in the series. 

In each instance she has followed a similar pattern she has located a pubic domain image of an animal (which has been source from a variety of internet search locations) once she has been able to import this into Tinkercad she has then applied the linking for the design (as followed initially via tutorial however she has since mastered this to the point she can complete it independently).  

Following this it is simply a matter of producing a 'test' print so that she has been satisfied with the linking (in some cases the location
has needed to be slightly altered).  This has allowed a final print to be produced.

The student regularly attends local craft market where she sells a range of goods that she produces herself (earrings, as has been featured on this site)

The school is arranging to make the snapmaker available for the student and the printers to be used with the PLA available as cost price and the student will be able to use the printers to manufacture items for sale.   This will in our opinion encourage the students creativity, expose the community to something unique that has been created by a student using technology at the school and provide them with an opportunity which they would not otherwise have had.

We are refining the prints during the holidays including looking at the student perfecting the linking and silhouette selection to allow them to produce a master set of unique, creative 3D Prints.

3D Printed Customised Electronic Protection Boxes

 

In the past we've been working on a variety of projects in New Zealand and used our 3D Printers to create customised perfect fitting containers or protection for electronic circuits.    

One of the advantages for this type of creation with 3D Printing is that the PLA has shown to not deteriorate over time, as is evidenced by our evacuation signs which have now been exposed to the elements as a 3D Print for several years, since 2018,  without any indication of damage or suffering the ill affects of being directly exposed to the weather.  This makes them ideal tools to create customised small scale boxes to house or protect elements of the 

We have been involved in a significant project locally focussing on using electronics and technology to improve the effectiveness of pest (predator) trapping in New Zealand specifically stoats and brush tailed possums.   This work is detailed on our other significant blog Soundluresnz.blogspot.com

This example is of a small electronic motor that needs to be able to be protected against the elements as it is part of a wider trap and circuit.   As our students are developing their details with the motor including adding additions to it we would be looking to use the printer to print its protection rather than buying something which would then become obsolete if we decide to adapt the box or the motor further.

We are continuing to refine this project as this is a prototype and we will be continuing to focus on using our 3D Printing capabilities to ensure that the overall unit can be completed, made weather tight and used to add value to the electronics component of the build and the project.

Original Articulated Animal Design: Butterfly

 Now that we have completed work on the school market day the students are looking at addressing projects from prior to this timeframe that require completion.   As noted the majority of the prints of animals for our market day were the articulated animals located on Thingiverse.    While these were a good starting point we wanted to look at developing our own prints.

As featured here on the site we have a number of students working on developing original prints, which was started by the kiwi.   In the same group was the butterfly.   This was attempted to be printed previously although we had a faulty part on the machine (since replaced) which has allowed the following to be completed.

The process for the design of the butterfly involved brainstorming the idea, the students had identified how to complete the linking via a tutorial video on Youtube.    The design for the butterfly was sourced online.

The print measured 120mm across and was 90mm high at the tip of the wings and 60mm high at the top of the abdomen.   The print was 10mm high and took three hours to print.   The linking was quite loose however it was effective and worked extremely well.  The student used the component stages and then produced the final print in Tinkercad before it was converted using the Snapmaker Luban software before being print.

Tinkercad as a design program for our students works extremely well.  We have used it for a number of years at our 1:1 iPad School.  The students predominantly use Apple Laptops to create the prints although we have some students who use iPads to create the design.   As a teacher I also think that Tinkercad has excellent Educator/Teacher interface and the ability to host a classroom in a easy and adaptable manner.  The classrooms at school have school accounts created and linked to them and the students are able to design and create and then easily share and modify their designs.

The student as noted in this case has been able to design the butterfly essentially from scratch and the student researched and identified the linking via youtube - and thus was able to present to the teacher the final print which was then able to be directly printed without any modification.    This student has shown creativity and invention with her work and had two years experience using Tinkercad and the Ultimaker printers that were previously in the classroom.   

Snapmaker as a printer also has software that is available that works in conjunction with the printer/Tinkercad to produce the final results.  Again the software associated with this is exceptional, easy to manipulate and develop and produces excellent result.

Key to the final product, and we have mentioned this before, is that there is literally zero waste that is produced as a result of the printing - and the consistency with the print job is fantastic.   The linking/print comes out as a single piece already linked and completed.   This allows the students to produce an eye catching and creative design finished to an extremely high standard.   This is an exceptional project and exceptional example of student creativity.

Market Day - Literacy Tasks for 3D Printing

One of the challenges of our recent market day with students was how we could use the 3D Printing aspect of their businesses but link it to another aspect of the curriculum.  One way that this was done was by having the students document the process that they were involved in to then write and explain the process.  This is an example of that - a noughts and crosses game board and pieces.

The student was able to use a number of screen shots to show the design process in Tinkercad to include the printed designs prior to their decoration by spray painting.   We also wanted to ensure that the students thought about the packaging that went with their products and included details (such as the small parts safety warnings and not selling them to students who were under three years of age).   In this example as it was a game we also insisted the students wrote the rules of the game and included them with the products. Logomaker.com was used to produce the design for the group.   This meant that the application of the 3D Printing and 3D Printer was wrapped around a number of aspects of the curriculum - in this instance the game board and pieces was a unique design that the student involved with personally designed.

3D Printed Market Day - Articulated Animals: Designed Prints.

 

This is the finished draft of the Flexi-animals, which were located on Thingiverse and have been produced during the previous few weeks.   The students have selectively spray painted some of them and created packaging to go with their designs.   The slug is backed on MDF which was laser cut, the other animals have simple and straightforward designs created by a Y5 student using Pic Collage.  All of the animals have an information link on the back (via a student created QR Code).     The print time of the animals featured varies slightly from two and a half hours (tiger, snake and shark) to forty five minutes (slug).

3D Prints for Market Day - Developing the Products

We have been featuring these products as we are working towards our school market day in the coming weeks.

We have been charting the progress of the games shown on the left which have now had the addition of having been spray painted and having the counters decorated.

The students have been involved with planning the colour schemes combing the different colour combinations and under supervision of responsible adults decorating or using the spray cans.    The students have further additions to make to the projects including the instructions and the business and detail and create the appropriate packaging.

Market Day: Developing the Technology in Use

 

We are continuing to look at ways to incorporate our schools technology into our upcoming Market Day showcase for the students.

We have shown the flexible animals (flexi-animals) as a major product which has been used for the 3D Printer.   We have been looking at ways to enhance the presentation.  One of the ways is to use another piece of technology to produce the backing, as shown in the photograph on the left.   A vinyl printer has been used to produce a professional grade sticker which the 3D printed slug can be mounted to using blu-tack.   This has created a strong backing unit for the slug which is going to be further enhanced by using another key piece of our school technology - the laser cutter to cut a board of MDF which the sticker produced by the vinyl printer will then be stuck (it has been printed with adhesive backing as a sticker) to the MDF.

We have also refined our games that we are selling.   We have revised the print to look at slightly to improve the print time.  The original took ten hours, however we challenged one of the students to decrease this time, which he was able to do by redesigning the board, essentially making it less deep - this reduced the time from ten hours to five making the production of the boards much more manageable.

Spray Painting 3D Prints

 

As we continue towards our school market day, which our 3D Printers and our snapmaker have such a major role to play, we have continued to look at ways to add to the students 3D Printing experience.

We have advertisements and business lessons planned around the material used to make the 3D Prints (the students have calculated how much PLA they have used for each of their prints to come up with a realistic charge for using the printer) and profit and loss statements.

In the above photograph you can see the desk organisers which have now been spray painted to complete their presentation.   While these have not featured in a specific print post on this blog, we have detailed the creation of this sort of project in years (!) on this blog.   The only exception is to note once again we find ourselves talking very positively about the use of the Snapmaker to complete the project in terms of not only time but also design and waste, both of which have shown significant improvement since switching machines.

As shown left the Tigers, previously detailed on this blog have undergone a significant transformation with a spray of orange and black to represent more traditional colour of a tiger.   The snakes having been printed in lilac green have had a spray of green on the top (which looks particularly striking with the underneath complementing it)

It goes without saying the students themselves have been thrilled with the results, the details and the overall look of the animals from this project.     We were able to complete this spray painting with some budget aerosol cans which were available from a locally supplied shop.   The quality of the paint was extremely pleasing.