We are ofter looking at ways in which we can decorate or add to our 3D Prints.   This is a brief example where we have had the students select a stencil and use it in combination with a white PLA 3D Print (which was themed for Mothers Day 2026).

The stencil was applied with a yellow base coat and then the dolphin stencil was applied over the top.  This left a design with a double layer of decoration.

The PLA when spray paint applies bonds with the aerosol paint and when it dries it is extremely durable and lasting.

On the same print the student also had this affect repeated this time in reverse with the purple as the backing colour and the yellow for the bird stencil that was then overlayed over the top.

This is not something that the students of our classroom are able to do due to their age.   It is something that we very much want an adult or responsible others to complete.

AR/VR Projecting onto 'not Lego"

 

We've previously blogged about the set of lego 'not lego' bricks that were a promotion at a local supermarket that we were able to purchase for $1.00

In the example shown left you can see the basic set up which is a kitchen, inside of a building.  As an introductory task for our students we wanted to use the Tinkercad App, the students and their iPad to create an object that could be placed somewhere into this scene.    We allocated a single afternoon block of time for this task, approximately forty minutes.

The theme of the build is to create 'Lego' ish figures - as we have noted this is not an official Lego set.   Tinkercad works well in this regard as it is able to produce 'block' figures easily as can be seen in the photograph shown left.   The image has been manipulated in the senses that the figure in red is not there, it is an AR/VR creation important and 'projected' into place by the student.   The student concerned is an eight year old student from the second cohort of students in class.   He was able to produce this design independently without any teacher input.

We also encouraged students to produce an item of furniture or an object and include this with the physical design crated by the bricks being assembled.

This is a second example with a more comical looking figure that the student has added a generic guitar.   In the second example here the figure is oversized relative to the rest of the furniture in the picture and the other objects.

The student has also some additional features that could be potentially added - of note for instance the hands at the end of the arms are missing at present and the facial features of the figure could benefit from having some additional details.   All of the design features are created from the main Tinkercad interface. 

3D Printed Photo frame - Mothers Day 2026

 

Challenge: For student to create something unique and personalised to celebrate Mothers Day, 2026.

Background: With this event occurring in New Zealand this coming weekend a number of students submitted ideas and creations for this project.  We went through them and assessed each on their merits against the criteria - creativity, uniqueness and personalisation and printed a number of them.   As we are working with a particular timeframe we also needed to be realistic about the size of the print.   While we now are aware that we can recycle the waste support PLA (as we are currently gathering supplies to work with Kiwifil we are also mindful of the cost of producing a larger print.  These tend to be one off prints or very selective in terms of the number that we produce.   We are running every print this year off essentially one machine as we've detailed so that is somewhat of challenge at time when the machine gets busy.

Resources Used: Tinkercad App, iPad, Bambu H2D Printer and regular PLA Filament.

Level of Difficulty: Medium/Advanced - there is quite a bit going on with this print in terms of design, size and how it is ultimately intended to be used.  The idea is to use the frame in conjunction with a small scale canvas print, potentially printed on the Roland Versa Sign Maker.   

Size: This is a substantial print measuring 200mm across, it has a depth of 50mm and is 150mm high.  The letter at the front is 20mm high and a total of 140mm across and is between 15mm and 20mm high at the bottom and extends for 140mm across the base of the print.   The insert for the photo a gap 150mm long and 10mm wide which is just behind the lettering at the top.  This would allow a solid object to be inserted in this location.

Cost/Price: As this is a Bambu H2D Print using the online software with the printing process we can determine that the print uses 238g of filament and this has a price point to produce the print of %5.94. 

Timeframe: The print took nine hours and twenty one minutes to complete on standard settings.  

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students:   The students are wanting to put either a regular photograph into the frame backed with some kind of insert or use the Roland Sign Maker to make something that would potentially be 3D Printed (such as the canvas prints we have completed with the machine previously.

3D Printed Mothers Day Stand - Exemplar

 

Challenge: To produce a unique print themed for the upcoming celebration of Mothers Day in New Zealand.

Resources Used: Tinkercad, iPad, regular white PLA, Bambu H2D.

Background: As we approach Mothers Day a number of students have made creations and designs for this upcoming day.   The brief to the students has been for the designs to be created in the students own time and independently.   The teachers role in this is merely to check the designs at the last stage and print ones that meet the brief.

Obviously while there is a huge volume of material that is available from online sites and portals we are looking to encourage the students design skills and have them work independently to create.  We have encouraged students of course to share their ideas and designs with each other and we also have a range of designs that are available via online sources like this blog.   We also have a group of students who started the process last month which featured here.

The process for this project and the students design can be traced directly back to this post from the same student in March.   Basing their design on an existing print they were able to create their own hybrid book or iPad stand.

This design had its basis in that although the scale was significantly reduced - however the goal of it working (ie it is able to hold the weight of a standard phone).   and by reducing the size the student also significantly reduced obviously the printing time and cost.

Level of Difficulty: Medium.  This is a eight year old from the cohort one students who is work independently - the design has a number of subtle features on it and works well.  It has balance and is not overcrowded or have elements that look like they are out of place.   There is very little 'unused space' and the design is extremely efficient.

Size: The print measures 70mm across at the front, is 110mm deep or long and is 5mm thick at the base.   The triangle for the support for the phone is 70mm high.   These dimensions work well to support a regular phone and obviously they would be adapted for a larger phone or device (such as a Kindle).

Cost/Price: The print uses 55g of PLA to be completed.  This was determined by using the Bambu Lab software.  It also allows us to calculate the price of the print which was $1.36 NZD.

Timeframe: To complete this print on regulation settings the time was two hours and ten minutes.   There would be no need as such to increase the size so this was an excellent use of the time.

What we would do differently/Next Steps for the student: the obvious next step for this project is for their to be spray painting completed (this is not something that a student will do this is passed onto an adult to complete).   Otherwise the project is essentially complete and has been delivered prior to the event.

3D Printed Pencil Toppers: Prototype

 

One of the best things about the students designs and creations and the 'making' process for the students is the ability to adapt and 'break' certain designs.   In a recent classroom challenge we asked students to create a 'pencil topper' that was an item that could sit on top of a students pencil so that the students could identify easily whose pencil each was using.

We also identified this as a suitable practical design task because its scale meant the classroom could have a print produced each in a relatively short space of time (the average time beforehand we were estimating to be in the region of thirty minutes for each print).

Students follow a familiar process of design, testing (using AR/VR and the virtual designs created in Tinkercad) measuring and checking.   Only then when this has been completed do the students mark their 

In the case of the print left, some of these criteria were not met, however the print had a certain charm to it so the teacher made the decision to print the design.   The design in essence is too big.   The design measures 100mm across by 45mm and is then 10mm wide.   Realistically the length makes it too unwieldy to balance on the top of a pencil.  Finally the insert for the pencil while it appears to be suitable is not - more accuracy is required at this location.   When the design was shared with the student in virtual form it appeared suitable - however when printed it out it was obvious that considerable adjustment was required.

The print as it stands used 30g of PLA to complete and this had a price point of $0.75c.   The print took one hour to complete.

The revision would require a reduction in size and adjustment of the insert location.   The student have also started a discussion about completely 'flipping' the design by making it a storage location by changing the entrance point and having the storage run landscape.

In the second example shown left this design is considerably smaller.   The student took advantage of the detail that is possible with the Bambu H2D and of note is the students name on the top of the design which is only 2mm high and 5mm across.

Again there are issues with the design that need to be address the clear issue is again the insert for a pencil - while it again appears to be suitable for a regular pencil when the actual print was applied to a pencil there was clear difficulty to match the two together.

The centre of the design is off with the circle insert.  The print used 10g of PLA filament to complete.   The print cost was determined to be $0.24.   The print took thirty two minutes to complete.

The entire class have used this two physical examples and applied the logic and design for the entire class to apply to their own designs.

As mentioned previously there are numerous other potential examples which you can view by searching for them using the 'Search this Blog' box.

3D Printed Numbers: Eight Years On

 

The longest print that we've maintained is one that took place in 2018.   We at the time were looking at providing numbers for our classrooms for the management of evacuations.   We had a set of iron numbers however we wanted to replace them and choose 3D Printing numbers.   The issue at the time was a question about the longevity of the 3D Printed numbers and the PLA - the area where the numbers were placed was in full sun and also exposed to the weather during winter in New Zealand.

Eight years later we can state categorically that the integrity of the print itself has been maintained.   There is clear evidence of weathering of the colouring of the PLA (and we could like to point out that we have resprayed the prints since they were first completed).

You can read the original post and see the original lettering from this post in August 2018.  There was a further update on the project and the numbers from March 2021.    There are also updates from 2019 - all of which can be searched from this blog by using the keyword search 'numbers' in the 'Search this blog'.

It is our intention to continue to have their numbers on display as long as is feasibly possible as long as  they serve the purpose.    In all likelihood we will continue to respray the numbers again at some point in the future - the only losses that we have occurred is that students playing on the field (football/soccer) have kicked a ball in the direction of the prints and when struck directly by the ball - and we have lost four in the last eight years.

Working in Miniature with 3D Printing

 

We've got a range of prints our students are working on at the moment.   While some of these are somewhat on the larger scale in terms of scope and size its also important to highlight that the 3D Printers are able to sometimes print detail into prints.

We have blogged with the students work on this site for over ten years during that time the printers have evolved at an increasing impressive rate.   We've previously also identified that now thanks to companies or sites like Kiwifil its possible to use recycled PLA or have prints, projects and rafting reused.    The machines that we use are using an increasingly accurate and detailed such as recent prints for the pencil topper that featured yesterday.

The examples that we are showing here have been produced by a student designing independently after two months in the classroom, working with their iPad, Tinkercad App and were printed on our Bambu H2D.

The prints shown are as they were removed from the machine without any 'rafting' or waste plastic - the prints took twenty two minutes to complete.   They used seven and a half grams of PLA filament to complete and this had a price point of $0.18c to complete.  The prints were not project with AR/VR (using the Tinkercad App) but they could have been as we have been doing regularly on this blog.   This was completed by a student who is seven from cohort one, 2026.  For visitors from overseas from this blog please be aware when we quote prices for the filament and prints we are discussing the price in NZD.

This example of the same project is representing a students creation of another pair of earrings.   This student is from cohort two, is eight years old and was able to produce this again independently without the need for teacher input.   The design was completed in Tinkercad and the student then duplicated the pair to have a matching pair.  As someone who is a regular wearer of earrings and who intends to wear a pair of these once she is happy with the finished design she is intending to make adjustments to ensure they hand in a way that she is happy with.

The dimensions of this completed print can be seen from the screenshot of the Tinkercad work plane (left).  A pair of the earrings took forty minutes to print (on standard settings) and used eight grams of PLA to complete.  This had a price point for the pair of $0.20c.   This student is also going to revise the design to include more details (on the arms).

The student has already started the modification process (as shown left).   The left had figure has revised arms, the students name has been put on the design and an adjustment was made to the eyelet.

This site has a number of projects that feature miniature sized prints.  You can search for them using the search bar top right hand corner of this blog or you can also look at examples such as miniature bees from November last year, our series of prints on miniature jugs and vases which evolved into a forced perspective digital photography task from March of this year,    We also had an entire years project based around a Dolls House where our students made miniature furniture for the inside of it, see this project summarised here.