3D Printed Dolls Bunk Bed - Exemplar

Challenge: To create a piece of furniture for a Dolls House.

Background: This task has been detailed from a number of perspectives and the process has been repeatedly highlighted on this blog.   You can see an overview slideshow of the process if you click here.

This task was completed by a seven year old who has been using Tinkercad for two months.  The student was able to work independently to complete the task, and has completed several designs in the sequence.   After completing a basic bed shape the student wanted to extend themselves further - the initial design was functional but lacked detail that the student was able to add.    The idea for the bunk bed and the scale came from the companion figure.

We have been encouraging the students to think outside the box with the project and to look at how we might able to be use some of our other technology and some of our other resources at school.  For instance we offer sewing as an elective for our senior school and this is something which would potentially work well with hand sewing (for blankets for instance and pillows perhaps with some stuffing).

You can also see the direction we are intending to move towards to cover the floor and the walls of the dolls house in the photograph on the left.

Size: The design measures 90mm long, is 50mm high and 60mm wide.   It has the exaggerated steps and pillows, with the intention of it working with the plastic figure shown in the photograph.   There was a significant amount of 'rafting' with this design as the student printed it in one design, instead of splitting it into two seperate pieces.   This is potentially something that we could guide the student with in the future, the dimensions as they stand need to be this size for the figure to work.  We also want it to be robust it needs to work for junior students who are going to handle it repeatedly and interact with it.

Timeframe: Four and a half hours on the regular default settings.  As noted this could be improved by the removal of the middle section and then the joining of the two pieces together.   

What we would do differently/next steps for the student: There really is little more that could be expected from this design all things considered.   The location and the use, which is by five year old children, needs to make sure that its robust enough for a heavy use item potentially.

The student it goes without saying is extremely impressed with how the project has gone, and how the overall result has been produced.  This is currently the near end run of a roll of 'rainbow' print.   We will be looking at ways to create the bedding (as noted above) and how we might use technology to help with it.