3D Printing: Projects Currently Operating

 

Print shown left: A thirty two hour significant print, this was a commercial designed and available version of the Britannic, sister ship of the Titanic.   We have a student at school who has a particular strong interest in this class of ship and wanted to do something special for him, to allow him to have more projects that would develop off it.   In this case it was locating a design of a ship in the series, and printing it.   The size really tested the limits of our Snapmaker Printer - it took thirty two hours to complete and during the process we were constantly checking to ensure there was no PLA issues and the print remained robust and the print worked.   While there were no design features that the students created with this we have already had significant and detailed discussions with the student about the boat, the painting scheme and what else we can add to the project.

While the integrity of the boat remained during printing there were some very subtle features that did not survive the removal of the rafting, chiefly a radio mast at the front of the print and a corresponding print at the back that would have been no more than 1mm across.   

We are continuing to experiment with our 'rainbow PLA' and range of others that have allowed us to print in a finished state without the students wanting to then spray paint the results, saving an additional step.

The examples shown left are student designed labels for multi-purpose items, the labels measure 60mm long and are 20mm wide as well as being 5mm thick.

The print time for these is thirty minutes.

Junior Classroom Challenge: Student Cubes

 

Challenge: Students were given a class wide challenge to take a 3D Object, which was a dice shape and then create six different shapes to this shape.  Students were instructed that the design aspects of the shape needed to be sunk into the design, not to have the details facing outwards.   This was a continuation of some of earlier classroom term design projects pencil sharpener holder, ear rings designs and a boat.

Background: This was a classroom challenge for the entire classroom.   The task was pushed out to the students for them to complete their design.    It was a short time frame for this design, but the emphasis was for students to design into the base of the shape - as typically the students add external details which can be effective, but by inverting the process it develops the students design abilities in this area.

We allowed the students the ability to create an individual project with a different size depending on what the students wanted to work with.    A range of the designs and shapes can be shown on the left.  In the series of prints students typically used the various shapes that were available and easily inserted from the main Tinkercad interface.  

Level of Difficulty: Easy for the students who have used Tinkercad for nearly a calendar year

Size: The smallest of the three shapes shown left is 20mm by 20mm.   The larger red shape was 35mm by 35mm.   The largest gold shape was 50mm wide and was 60mm long, it was 50mm high.   These designs were all 

Timeframe: The smallest of the shapes took under twenty minutes, the middle shape took ninety minutes and the largest of the shapes took four hours.   In retrospect for this design the smallest shape would have worked perfectly for this project and given that the intention is to transfer the skill of the designing into the base of the shape.

What we would do differently next steps for the students: We would like to see the students transferring this ability to other designs such as the badge or name plate.   This has proven to be a simple design task that was easily printed in a time frame that would mean it potentially could be a successful classroom project.

3D Printed Boats (Exemplar) Oars

Challenge: For a students to create a unique design for a boat.

Background: One of our classroom challenges for our students this term has been to design, create and then print a boat.   These have featured in combination with our Tinkercad/Pixton/Pic Collage combinations and we have started the process of printing selected boat designs - one that look correct.

The idea ultimately is for the students to design a boat that is feasible, that can be powered and have a Sphero Robot controlled in the boat to turn the oars.   There are a number of elements that need to work in conjunction with this.   Due to the time constraints and the feasibility of printing so many large designs we are selecting only certain students who designs show the most potential to go through the printing process.   We are AR/VR/Photo Filtering each of the designs, and intending to print multiple paddles and oars and printing a number of the accessories.  A detailed catamaran has already come out of this project.

The student concerned with creating and overseeing this project is a Y4 junior school student, that is a student who has just turned eight.  She has been designing in Tinkercad since the start of the year.

The inspiration for the boat came from the students use of technology to find what was likely to work.  When she applied her ideas to her design she also investigated the use of oars and paddles on a boat to ensure that the mechanism would be potentially powering the boat forward.

The hull design was used from the main Tinkercad interface.  She added bars on the boat for stability and then included robust rings for the potential of up to four oars or a double bar to have a paddle moving.   Again she used actual examples of these to increase the likelihood of success.  

Level of Difficulty: Overall this is a challenging project, although this mainly coming in the form of ensuring that the boat is powered successfully.   The boat itself is a medium level project - the ability of the 3D Print to float is something that we have recognised in several projects featured on this blog from a standard bath toy to a more complicated boat design.

Size: The boat measures 150mm long and is 90mm wide.  It is 30mm high.   These dimensions are perfect for a working boat, however there is a small issue with this size, which came as a result of testing.

The first major test that the boat passed with flying colours was the ability to float.  This was completed easily with the boat showing no intake of water what-so-ever despite an extended time in the water.  

The boat balanced perfectly and was quite happy inside its container.  This was in contrast to the initial designs of the catamaran that listed due to small holes underneath the hull where it joined.

The challenge came when the Sphero Robot was placed on top of the design.  As soon as this was done the boat sank, due to the weight of the robot.

The student brainstormed potential solutions for this but found the issue very challenging.   The teacher has assisted and has directed the students to look for additional ways to power the boat, and we are currently investigating some of the options with Strawbee Robots.  There are some simple robotic movements that could potentially complete a rowing type motion, the weight of which would certainly not cause the collapse of the boat by excessive weight.

Timeframe: Five hours to print on the regular (default) settings.  If the intention is to move forward with a Sphero boat this would need to big significantly increased.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students: This is an ongoing project that the students is developing, working on and improving.  The key ongoing issue is resolving the powering of the boat - it floats at present without any effort but some form of power to move it, perhaps even a sail would finish the project nicely.

3D Printing with Rainbow Options - Revisiting Previous Projects

 

Traditionally the projects on this blog created and printed by students over the last ten years have featured a base filament (colour) which we have then spray painted for affects, colour and details.

Recently we have noticed as I am sure many of you have that the there have been a range of prints appearing with rainbow or multi-colours that have come directly from the PLA.

We have previously experimented with glow-in-the-dark filament, which we found to be a little challenging in particular when we then returned to more regular projects.

Recently we revised this approach.  We have located a range of rainbow filament which has different layers and shading to it and have started experimenting with it.

While some aspect of the difference in the print is shown in the photograph this has added some depth and colour to the prints.

We have revisited some of our more popular prints included the flexible kiwi, shown left or some of our name tags and badges shown above.

There is no current deviation for the temperature for the printer required and the filament appears to be as robust as ever, ensuring the stability of the students projects.

Laser Cutting Electronic MDF Support Pieces

 

This project was requested for a electronics project that required targeted MDF to fit into existing electronic equipment.   The laser cutter was used to cut the MDF into three distinct sizes - two of which were then identified by the labelling of the wood.

In each case the three sizes were specific to the electronic projects that needed to be cut with precision.

The Y8 student was able to create the sizing of the MDF within twenty minutes and then the cutting of the MDF took a further ten minutes - so the entire process and creation process took half an hour.   You can view in the link here previous work using the 3D Printer for a school project relating to the Sound Lure Predators from 2020-2023 by clicking on the link here.

Junior School Students Unpacking Commercial Designs

 

Recently a series of fidget like designs have started arriving at our school, which were initially purchased by students from an online commercial seller.

The student concerned purchased the design shown below.   When they had this delivered they thought that they would be able to locate this design online and did so by using Thingiverse.

The student located a basic print, was able to download the .stl code and then supplied it to the teacher for printing.   The student concerned did so without any teacher input, was able to simple hand it to the teacher and then request it would be printed.

The material that was used for the PLA for the design has meant that we have changed focus with our prints.  In the past we have used PLA and included the spray painting as part of the decoration process.  We wanted something that would engage and excite the students so we have opted to order a significant amount of rainbow PLA from our supplier, the first prints of which will be completed later in the week.

The design above was completed in three and half hours, had a small amount of PLA support at the base and the spiral measures 60mm across the base and is 70mm high.  There are no adjustments required for this print as the student concerned simply located a print that was otherwise available and wanted to be able to duplicate it.   By gaining possession of the .stl code the issue is simple whether or not the student wants to resize the design, although changing it would not necessarily by on the agenda given how snug it needs to be to successfully work.

Repairing a commercial Print:

Another favourite that has flooded the classroom at this point is the various animals that have been located.  Initially these came in the forms of animals and dragons that were ordered online.   Some of the commercial prices that were charged for these items were interesting given the context that our students are able to work out the amount of PLA included into a design and therefore work out the profit margin (yes even at Y3/4).

Some of the items that have been located are less than robust, particular in areas such as the linking.  An example is shown left, the lizard here in particular has very minimal linking for each of the legs.

The students solution to this is to locate the original .stl file, which is easily available online.   The student has then loaded the image into Tinkercad and has started the process of strengthening the linking at the points where the print has broken consistently.

Finally we have students who are continuing to use the filters that are available to combine with their iPads to take 3D Designs and images and add layers to them.

A recent example is shown left - the student wanted to locate a copy of a figure from the Monopoly game.   Once this had been located the student downloaded it into Tinkercad and then wanted to start manipulating the image using some basic AR/VR features.  As we have mentioned in this blog students have been using both Tinkercad and PicCollage for this purpose.

In the example shown left the original .stl 3D Print design has been then filtered through distinct filters to increase the appeal and the presentation of it.