Revisiting Our 2018 Numbers

 

The image taken left is from 2018.   This was the year that we decided to replace the wrought iron numbering system that was on the wire fence with some custom made numbers.

It is the area where we have our evacuation assemblies and where we need to have clearly visible signage so students need to know where to line us.  This led us to putting a series of 3D Printed numbers up in place of the originals and documenting their time exposed and out in the elements - the original numbers are mostly intact and are exposed to the elements throughout the year.   You can click on the original 2018 project print here.  We have followed this initial post with a series of updates over the years tracking the change in the PLA of the numbers (which is essentially none) and also what has happened to the prints over the years.

In essence two things have occurred.  The first is while the PLA itself has remained intact the colour that was part of the initial print (orange) faded over time.   We have taken down the prints twice (in eight years) and had them resprayed.

The second issue has been that students like to play ball games (particularly soccer/football) on the field next to where the netting and the numbers are.   Although they are not targeting the numbers directly they have received several direct hits from students kicking a ball.   The original prints were 10mm thick.

This week we made the decision to replace two of the revised prints that have been consistently hit by kicked balls from the field.  

Of note as a reflection of how the technology that we are using has changed over the past eight years the original numbers when printed took four hours to complete.   The same sized objects now, twice as wide are taking one quarter the time - ie just over one hour to complete.

Resources Used: Tinkercad App, iPad, Bambu P1S, Cotton Candy PLA (this may be resprayed later).

Level of Difficulty: Low - this is a seven year old student operating independently to produce something with a purpose the teacher didn't need any direction and the task took three minutes.

Size: The focused with these revised numbers has been on the need to ensure they are more robust than the originals.   They are 120mm wide 130mm long and importantly 20mm thick which is double the width of the originals.

Cost/Price: The print used 54g of PLA to complete and this had a price point of $1.37.

Timeframe: This took one hour to complete (as noted the 2018 original, half the width took four hours).

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: Nil.   This was a task required to resolve a specific problem and it did so there is nothing further required.