3D Printing at the NZAIMS Games

 

Our wonderful rural school is attending the NZAIMS Games in Tauranga later this term competing in Girls Basketball.   As such we are competing as part of over 450 schools and 14,000 students.  One of the things is that we like to highlight something different about our school.

Regular visitors to this blog will potentially remember that this badge can out as a 'stock filler' item for our 2026 Market Day.

This item is a small item that we will be giving to the teams that we will be playing against as a thank you for the opportunity.  This item printed in super 'glow-in-the-dark' filament.   This print uses 12g of PLA to complete the print.   It took thirty five minutes to complete (including the warm up time of six minutes).   It has a price point as determined by the Bambu Studio Labs is $0.24c.

We have also been working on the 'sports trophy' design that we detailed in yesterdays blog post.   We have completed the first print using again the glow-in-the-dark filament.

The photograph shown left is an example of the details that are possible using the Bambu H2D.  The name at the front is 5mm or so in height.  The student has also decided to have the font go all the way through the design as shown in the top part of the design.

This could benefit from having the font more evenly spaced out to include a second line.  In the 3D Print design on Tinkercad the font is visible although small and it is a good example of a short term print illustrating what adjustments need to be made following a review of the print by the student who is working on the project.  In this instance as well as it is essentially a commission project he has been able to speak with the person who requested the design and receive feedback about how it is progressing and what changes need to be made.

3D Printed Prize Giving Awards: Progression

 

Challenge: To produce personalised trophies for a local sports club prize giving by having them designed by a student.

Background: There are a number of elements at work here.   We have previously blogged about the trophies that students have been working on based on an initial design from the Tinkercad main interface page.   We had students create the basic shape and then modify them by placing names or information into the design - you can view that blog post here.

The version of this design however that caused this project to be actioned was a slightly smaller version of the sellotape holder that was also featured as a blog post.  This physical copy was shown around to a number of staff and one of whom made a request to a student from the class - for there to be customised designs for the local sports team.

The sellotape trophy hybrid is shown left.  This has manner of the features explained in the posts.   This print currently measures 80mm across is 80mm high and has a diameter of 90mm.  With these dimensions and details the print had a print time of one hour and fifty eight minutes.   The print used 51g of PLA and had a price point of $1.01.

By producing a master copy of this print the student needs to only replace the name plate at the bottom for each person (and also put the name of the team on the outside of the cup).   There are going to be an experiment with doing this with the glow-in-the dark filament for a novelty affect which might slightly increase the price point.

After this was completed the first of the personalised designs was then taken and projected onto the school field it can be seen with Mt Taranaki in the background.

One student was able to complete the entire project including meeting the the person who wanted the designs created in under one hour and the only remaining part of the project will be to print the trophies.

Dance Dance Revoultion Expansion

 

Available to our students are all sorts of wonderful technology opportunities - one of our favourite resources which the students are able to use and is always popular is our full sized DDR (Dance Dance Revoultion) Step-Master machine.  This is a key resource at our school.  Not only did Mr Bloor make an amazing video and had an incredible project when it was made.  You can click on the link and see the creation of it here.

We have also had incredibly live-streamed competitions using this machine including our K-Pop Demon Hunters Special or our regular super challenge! 

This week there has been an incredibly exciting update - Mr Bloor has doubled the size of the machine! No longer is it just a two player battle now it has been increased to four!

You can see the additional pads in the photo on the left and they are already proving to be hugely popular with our students (who are able to dance at lunchtimes).   

You can see Mr Bloor has added something else to the machine as well - the bars at the back for even more crazy moves!

Don't forget this is not just an amazing piece of hardware for our students - we also create our own music videos which we then use in the competition where the students create, plan and then make their own music videos examples of which you can see by clicking on the link here.

We are so lucky to have Mr Bloor at Auroa Primary School as many of the projects that he works on at our school and with our students are 'passion projects' that he goes above and beyond the call of duty to work on.

3D Printed 'Eyes' Project

Challenge: For a junior school student to create a unique design and for the design to include a physical object to enhance its presentation.

Background: This design developed along with several from the classroom during this recent challenge.   The way that this design was created where the face was developed and made 'flat' was designed in a way that it became apparent that it would work well in conjunction with a physical object to enhance its presentation which in this case was the pair of eyes that the student selected to add to the face of the design.   

The basic design was completed by the eight year old without additional assistance from the teacher.

The student created this design from scratch and did not use anything other than the basic shapes that are available from the Tinkercad interface.

The eyes themselves came as part of a large pack that were purchased from a local chain store.  We have used them in the past such as with the cyclops design from 2025 which you can view by clicking on the link here.

Resources used to complete this print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Eyes from chain store, Bambu H2D, silver PLA.

Level of Difficulty: Medium there are some elements that the student could have refined however they worked well together and the eyes did add significantly to the details and the presentation of the piece.

Size: The print measured 60mm at the front is 70mm long and was 60mm wide.  The sides were generally between 10mm and 20mm wide.  While there was limited storage with this design it allowed the print to be manageable for both the size and the price.

Cost/Price: The unit used 49g of regular PLA to complete the task.  This has a price point of $1.00.

Timeframe: To complete the print the printer using the regulation default settings took two hours and twenty six minutes to complete the task.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students:  The student was happy with the design as they felt that it met the brief.   Some feedback was provided for the lettering which was a little bunched together as shown in the middle photograph.   The lettering could also have been adjusted.  Facially the student was happy but could have perhaps looked at some features that made it more dog like.

 

Hamburger Junior Storage

 

 Challenge: To create a unique storage item for a desk for the students to keep small items.

Background: This task was designed to test the students design creativity.   This shape was created from the Tinkercad design page but the student decided to use the shapes to make something that could be easily recognised.

The buns and the items that were in the burger were created by manipulating the shapes to represent the different parts of the design and the storage was of course created by making a hole in the top of the design before the student finally added their name to the design.     There is clearly additional details and features that could be added to this design.

Resources to complete this project: iPad, Tinkercad App, Bambu H2D, Silver Bambu PLA.

Level of Difficulty: Medium.   This design has a number of aspects of it to make it work.   

Size: The design measures 100mm across at the front.  The design is 100mm long and is 70mm high.

Cost/Price: This design used 116g of PLA to complete the print.   The price point of the print was $2.32 to produce.

Timeframe: To complete this print using the regular default settings the print took four and a half hours to complete.   There was a minimal amount of rafting associated with the print (which was the support at the bottom and between the cheese and the bun.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students:   The student has already considered how he might add additional features to the design such as the items that make up the inside of the burger.   On the buns itself several items of detail could be added.   

The student also is considering having the lettering sunk into the design instead of sticking out of the design.   The base of the design needs to have a basic sandpaper to smooth some of the edges of the design.

If you would like to see additional ideas for novelty stationary holders you can use the search bar in the top right hand corner of this blog.

3D Printed Sellotape Dispenser: Large

 

Challenge: For a student to design a creation that was able to house or store a roll of sellotape so that it could be used as a customised sellotape dispenser.

Background: This challenge was set for students and they were given a list of success criteria to complete the task based around design, functionality and viability of the print - as a number of the students designs were exceedingly large and considering had to be given to consider if printing these in large volumes.   The classroom and the teacher were essentially looking for one model to have in use in the classroom that could be adjusted and personalised.

The design process came with the students examining an existing dispenser (which was from the school office) and then thinking about what they might be able to do in response to that.

There were a couple of key points that the students needed to consider, firstly the blade to cut the sellotape was either going to be inserted into a bracket or an attempt was made to create this in a 3D Print.   The detail that the printers provided meant that it was able to produce a pseudo blade to complete this task.   The other obvious consideration was the design and the storage for the sellotape.   Ideally it needed to be able to easily house a range of tapes (of different sizes) and lock them in place so that they could have the tape dispensed.

This design was completed independently by a eight year old student as a fundamental basis for the design they used a pencil design from the main Tinkercad design page.   This made a huge difference to the time that was needed to complete the task.  This changed something that would have take several hours into something that was able to be completed in a short span of time, in an afternoon session of half an hour.

This meant that the students could concentrate their designs on the spatial elements and considering what would work.   The biggest issue to address was to make a viable holder in the middle of the design to allow it to hold the sellotape in place.

Resources used to complete this print: iPad, Tinkercad App/Interface (for the pencil file), Bambu H2D Printer, regular Silver Bambu PLA.

Level of Difficulty: Medium - if the student had designed the entire project from scratch this would have been extremely challenging however as they used a pre-made design for the basis of the print this made it able to be completed much more quickly.

Size: 90mm wide at the front.  230mm in length.   70mm high.   This is a significant amount of printing for this project - as it means to be a one off.

Cost/Price: Given the dimensions we were aware this would be significant.     The print used 250g of regular PLA to complete the print.  This had a price point of $6.30.

Timeframe: This print took six and a half hours to complete.   This was completed on standard settings with regulation infill.   The base potentially could have had more of an infill to add weight to the base so it did not shift when the holder was used.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: The design needs some refinement related to the point where the tape is dispensed from and there could potentially a way to engineer this.

Junior Stationary Cat: Version 2.0

 

Challenge: To produce a unique stationery holder.  Student needs to be creative and not use a third party design or shape.  This task was created by an eight year old student.

Background: As noted yesterday - this was an 'open' challenge with the criteria that the design had to be functional, original and realistic to print.

There were some similarities with some of the geometric shapes chosen by this student to represent some of the cat features.

Resources used to complete this print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Bambu H2D (silver) Bambu P1S (orange), Silver and Orange Bambu PLA (regular brand).

Level of Difficulty: Medium - there are quite a few elements that are working in conjunction with each other with this print.  There is potentially also further development that would be possible from this design (see below).

Size: The print measures 60mm across at the front of the print, has a length of 80mm and a height of 20mm.  The width of the sides was between 20mm and 10mm.

Cost/Price: The unit used 33g of PLA to complete.  Based on the regular price of the PLA the print had a price point of $0.82.

Timeframe:  The print took fifty six minutes to complete using the P1S Bambu printer the H2D Bambu printer completed the print in fifty one minutes.   Both machines had a six minute warm up time.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students: The print could have some further refinement on the sides of the design as there shapes such as the hearts (shown left) .   The face of the design (shown in the first photograph) clearly shows that there is potential further development of the features that the students could work on.  Similarly the feet of the cat are currently blocks and they could have further details.