2026 Virtual Pinball Link

 

Auroa School Virtual Pinball Competition!

 

Its one of the highlights of the year! Its one of Auroa Schools Big Events - Tomorrow (New Zealand time) we are holding one of our e-sports Virtual Pinball Competitions! The students will be battling throughout the day to march towards the final!  You can follow the action by clicking on the link to the livestream which we will update you with shortly! In the meantime we've got this retrospective which has highlights of all of our major competitions throughout the year! 

3D Printed Crab Fidget Toy

 

Challenge: For student to create and print an original fidget toy.

Background: This is an original design piece from a former student in the classroom who is now nine years old.  In it she wanted to create a cartoon character that had humour in its features that also was constructed using linking - of particular note is the dimensions and details of this print.

This student has designed this print in their own time and presented it complete for printing.   They have designed the linking themselves based on a range of designs that they worked on last year.

Resources used to complete this project: iPad, Tinkercad App,  Bambu P1S, Cotton Candy PLA.

Level of Difficulty: High - this is a complex design by a creative middle school student (formerly junior school) who has created a range of designs and projects of an increasingly complex nature.  They are working independently to complete them.

Size: The print measures 110mm across.   The main body is 40mm high and the design was 10mm wide.

Cost/Price:  The unit used 5g of PLA for rafting and a further 16g of PLA to complete the print.  Thus a total of 21g of PLA was used for this project.   This had a price point of $0.41 to complete.

Timeframe:   The project took forty four minutes to complete which included a six minute warm up and thirty seven minute print time.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the student: The student is keen to test the linking to ensure that it can last and function as intended.  It is noted that the feet could have some additional development.

Bambu P1S vs Snapmaker 2026 Comparison

 

This print first appeared as an original challenge on this blog in September of last year before our School Market Day and came out of a physical challenge - that was combining an object (in this case the oversized single eye) with a 3D Print.   You can view this project by clicking on the link here.

While the design was adjusted a number of times by student concerned (who was seven at the time) the details remained relatively constant.   One of the things about this print that stood out, apart from the creativity was that it was an excellent example of junior innovation, particularly when it was modified to include additional storage space - and in an excellent example of working it is a great USB drive storage and sits well on a desk! It also had some variation where we printed a glow-in-the dark or super-glow-in-the-dark versions.

One of the aspects to it that was of question was the print time.   At the time we had a single Bambu H2D for printing and several older Snapmaker machines.   When printed on the Snapmakers the print had a completion time of two hours, it was the intention to try it again on the Bambu H2D or Bambu P1S and compare the times for the same print, and the quality of the print.

With a two hour timeframe in mind we repeated the print again.   Of a small side note we have used Tinkercad interface (classroom) for a number of years now the old profiles, accounts and material is still available for students to use hence we are using for this comparison print the original design.

The repeat print (shown left) completed this week has been printed with a similar quality.   The print cost from the project was $0.72c and the print used 35g of filament including some support/rafting for the parts of the piece that were not part of the main body (the circles on the design to show bumps).

There was clearly an expectation of a time reduction - as the original took two hours to complete and we estimated at the time the (top of the line) Bambu H2D would take about half that.    However using the P1S machine we were unsure of the timescale and how it might affect this print or other pints from the past.

The new version of this print was completed in a total of 57 minutes which included the standard six minute warm up for the machine and fifty one minutes for a total print time - meaning that the smaller Bambu machine was printing twice as efficiently.  This will lead us to revisit some of the students previous work which we either didn't print in larger numbers due to time constraints or issues with rafting or details.

3D Printed 'Not Lego' Lego Minaature Chairs

 

Challenge: To produce an authentic looking piece of furniture to work in conjunction with a 'lego/not-lego' set or scene.

This activity has several reference points.  Firstly one of the major challenges that our students were involved in was the making a 3D Printed furniture suitable for a Dolls House.   You can see an overview of this major project by clicking on the link here.   An off shoot of this project was creating 'lego' scale figures.

A discount purchase of end of line promotion from a local supermarket meant that we could access several kitchen scenes and our students as result worked on a series of figures to match and then items of furniture to fit into the scene.  Students AR/VR the creations into these scenes and then we printed in some cases the physical figures.

This design came out of that process as it was an end process of producing a chair to fit around the table.   It was a relatively easy design for the student and allowed them to create something that could easily be printed (see time below) and then modified to fit into the scene.

Resources Used to complete this project: iPad, Tinkercad App (for design and AR/VR projection), Bambu P1S, Cotton Candy PLA.

Level of Difficulty: Low - this was completed independently by a nine year old,  The chair design as it stands (pardon the pun) at the moment is recognisable and functional although the potential would be for further details to increase the challenge.

Size: This is a miniature print to fit into a 'lego' sized scene.   The chairs dimensions at present measure 20mm across is 40mm high and 20mm deep/wide.

Cost/Price:  We have used the Bambu Studios cost price analysis extensively to ensure that we are considering the viability of prints but also to make sure we could identify what could be a 'whole class' activity for someone who is working on a budget or has limited access to a printer.   This design uses 5g of PLA plastic with a price point of $0.13c to produce - making it one of the lowest price prints that we have completed this year.

Timeframe: To complete this print the printer had the standard six minute warm up and preparation time and then printed for twenty one minutes.   This meant of course the total time was under half an hour on the regular default settings.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: The design that the student has created as shown left in place is almost too large as it stands at present.   When compared to the rest of the scene it is the size of a high chair but obviously does not have the correct dimension for this.  It needs to be adjusted smaller if it was to be for the table - however once this is completed (and this should take no more than a simple drag and click of the design) the student could make a full set from a single item.   The detail that the P1S can produce given the default settings is extremely impressive.  I have had a casual conversation with someone who is involved in role playing games and their machine is producing all of the figures.

There is huge scope for further design in this range.

3D Printed Tractor Accessories: Revised

 

Challenge: To produce an authentic looking accessory for a 3D Printed tractor.

Background: On a previous post on this blog we detailed this project and the students involved have now addressed a number of issues that were present.  In the initial version, the post of which is here, the students had a connector pin created but it needed some refinement.   Some of the smaller details on the print needed reworking.

The students took the initial working print and tested it in conjunction with the tractor - they identified that pin required reworking (it was made bigger and was therefore more robust, the original broke early on).   The ends of the accessory were adapted to ensure that they were balanced.  An attempt was made to address the connection at the underside of the design although this still needs to be addressed.

In the photo left you can see the progression between the three stages of development.  Print one while it had a design was too small, the second print, bottom right had some details but required the refinement that was provided by the third print.    

The dimensions of the different prints (particularly from two to three) did not vary significantly (and you can see them here).  

The students now feel that they are at the point where they have a working model and now want a final phase of adjustment (small details, accessories and tweaks) before completing a final design.

There has also been a range of discussion about what else could be produced in this range to create additional accessories that the students are familiar with on account of our school being in a heavily dairy farming dominated area.  The video below shows the print in 'action'.

Puanga - 3D Printing Art Prototpye

 

We have talked about the process of our students using Tinkercad to create an AR/VR image of the Puanga constellation which is visible in our region (instead of Matariki which is our nation wide holiday) 

We have started the process of early physical prototype of this with the intention of creating some form of a mixed media work.   The intention is for the students to paint a background and then have the 3D Printing attached to the background.   In early testing (shown left) some of the lettering stood out however while the lettering was solid the smaller stars had some difficulty being glued into place.   The students need to refine their design and ensure that the star had a flat back to it.   The lettering were sized large enough in this example to be glued directly to the background.

In an example like the one shown left (when the picture was taken prior to the print being removed from the plate).    Some of the stars shown left which worked in a context of the AR/VR work - but when converted to a physical 3D Print the size of the print the stars did not prove to be robust enough.

The stars will need to converted to physical print and then checked by the students.  It may well be that the AR/VR design should be increased in dimension to ensure that that it remains viable for the art.   

Finally the check that needs to be made to ensure that the glue can maintained and not have the pieces of the printing falling off at a later point.  We have used PVA glue in a first attempt and will be checking this over the coming days to ensure that it allows the design to remain in place.