3D Printed Exemplar Gift Box

Box shown from front with name dropped into the side

Challenge: To produce a box that would push the Ultimaker 2+ 3D Printer to its limit in terms of design features and size.
Background: At the end of the year one of the students who had been working on designs during the school year (which in New Zealand runs February to December) wanted to finish the year by producing something special.  He wanted to design a box that would test the limits of the 3D Printer in terms of design, such as features on it including size and a drop down lid.   The design was always going to be complex, large and detailed.  Originally it had been conceived as a Glow-in-the-Dark Filament print - however attempts to do so given the scale of the print were less than satisfactory so a change was made to go with a dark blue instead.   Each of the four panels of the box

had a design or a theme to it.  The designs were delibrately sunk into the base of the box to ensure that they looked as visually appealing as possible.    The lid was designed to work specifically in relation to the top of the box featuring a sunken lid design.   There was further personalisation with the lid and the handle. 

Left: Design on the second side of the box featuring a motorcycle. Some of the detailed required minute rafting removal. 

Above: Third side featuring Rugby

Level of Diffculty:   High - for an eleven year student with two years experience of 3D Printing design and creation, this student has shown time and time again that he has a talent for creation.   This sort of design is as difficult as it can get to be successful.

Timeframe: Thirty six hours for the printing of the box - which was completed with starting with a full roll of filament.   The lid took a further twelve hours.  Again this is not normal but rather a reflection of the scale of the design, there was significant 'rafting' in this design, each of the panels on each side of the box had a false

Above: the final panel with a goat.

Size:  As noted, in at attempt to push the printer to its limits the print was designed to make a large storage box.  This measured 140mm across (the base at the bottom) and was 140mm deep.  There was a significant lip at the top of
the box that was a 10mm square to allow for the drop down lid.   The box from top to bottom measured 100mm.   The width of the sides of the box was 15mm, with an edge of 5mm on the top of the box, the rest of the sides maintaining a 10mm width.   The lid for the top of the box reflected the dimensions of the base - it had a raised drop down lid which overlapped with the top of the edge of the box.   The lettering that dominated the top of the box was raised 10mm.   The handle used for the positioning of the top of the box was 45mm from the top of the lid. 
What we would do differently/Next steps for students: There was one or two slight issues created by the removal of the rafting, this created some marks visible in the final print (in the name panel and the motorcycle panel) these perhaps could have been larger.

3D Printing - Glow in the Dark School Keyring

Challenge: To use Glow-In-The-Dark 3D Printed Filament in a meaningful and creative way to produce a range of short term prints. 
Background: Completing the run of decorations based around Christmas Decorations for the past few weeks we wanted to move in the direction again of using Glow-In-the-Dark (or liumious PLA depending on the branding) to create an effect.    As such we targeted a couple of simple ideas that we have visited in the past, a keyring and a small badge, with the effect created by the filament to compensate for the basic nature of the design.    The student themselves initiaed the idea, a larger print was planned but the printing using the filament was not successful - the print was in the twenty five hour range and after one to two hours it was apparent the PLA would not produce a clean finish.  Level of Difficulty: Low- the idea here is to mass produce something relatively small that will show some creativity for visitors to the school that we can give them as a gift.  We also will tailor made the gift depending on the circumstances to represent local businesses or schools that might visit or we might have interaction with.   The basic design is very straightforward with a basic shape and simple lettering a hole placed for connection the kind of filament of course is the simple 'x factor' related to the print, Glow-In-the-Dark filament is something we've experienced some success with in the past.
Time Frame: Three Hours - the intention is to mass produce these as school related gifts and therefore the idea was to minimise the size - the object in question is designed to create a stir and the filament choice is the primary way to do so.
Size: Again - delibrately chosen as something that we are mass producing as a basic gift.  We therefore wanted to balance the purpose with the keyring being practical but not too large.  It was 5mm thick and was a square that was 50mm across and 50mm high. 
What we would do differently/Next Steps for Students: Having experienced using Glow-In-the-Dark filament before we are intending to run it through to the end of the spool and produce the same print repeadtely.   This is because after experiencing it in the past we have found information that shows it needs to be sealed when not on the machine.   If you don't then it degrades quickly and we want to utilize it as much as possible before this process occurs. 

3D Printed Lettering Combined with Laser Cutting

Challenge: Student wanted to combine the lettering created with a 3D Printer with the use of the school laser cutter with the goal of producing something as a gift for Chirstmas.
Background: Student has shown excellence in use of 3D Printing in the Classroom.  While they are extremely gifted with design we have been trying to encourage to them to think about combining technologies and ideas.   In this case the student created the lettering first, and then used the school laser cutter to cut into MDF to create the background image.   The image came from a simple online search and took approximatley ten minutes to laser cut.  The lettering was created using Tinkercad from the main interface.   The 'Monty' lettering shown with the above photograph was 15mm high and measured 60mm across - taking forty minutes to print.  It was then superglued to the base.

Left: Further repeating the process the student added a coat of basic gold paint to the same process, the base was wood with MDF again and the lettering was a simple case of creating a basic Tinkercad Font design with lettering which were 20mm high and 40mm across. 

The laser cut aspect of the design took ten minutes for the cutting, the design itself was freely available online.

Left: Another similar design instead featuring a rabbit.  Again a similar process to the other designs, the student is using freely available designs or outlines of creatures (in this case the rabbit) and then painting it with a gold backing colour.   The student has gone with a 'Christmas Red' PLA to contrast with the 'gold paint' producing the red to stand out and for effect.

For the printing part of the name the default settings that you will be familar with on this blog apply.

 Next Steps for the Students: The student concerned has developed her use of the 3D Printer to an extremely high standard producing a significant body of work.   The next logical step to extend hereself is to look at combining the two technologies more on significant projects.

3D Printed Cellphone Stand - Short Term Prints

Above: Design shown in profile

Challenge: Student wanted to create a specific object -  a stand for a cellphone that the student owned.  He wanted to personalize it and put a theme into its base.  This was his first ever print and the student involved is nine years old.
Background: As part of the process of designing 'Christmas' themed decorations in our classroom and now across the school, we also have been trying to expose students to the technology and getting them thinking about projects that they might be able to create to solve a problem or have a purpose to make something work that was currently needing to be completed.  This print came out of that as the student concerned wanted a stand for his cellphone and felt that it needed to be personalized.   As it was also part of a series of festive decorations the student decided to add the star and the Christmas Tree as shown above.   Also of note in the design was the way the name was

Above: Lettering clearly visible

created for the print.  The lettering was large and the student, despite it being his first ever print, wanted to have the lettering sunk down into the base of the design. All in all the student was producing a piece of work that had a specific purpose, it was their first ever design (for a nine year old) and the print was extremely successful. 
Level of Difficulty: Medium - this worked in unison with the sum of its parts.   The print worked perfectly for what it was, its one of those prints that is simple, but extremely effective and is successful that it appears to be straightforward (for instance a cellphone fits perfectly on this as a stand) but it requires a successful print to do so. 

Time frame: Four Hours- given the purpose of what was required this is the absolute minimum print time that would be required.   Testing of this stand with a regular cellphone had it working perfectly but with very little space either side of the phone, hence this would be an absolute minimum time required to complete the print.   There was not rafting what-so-ever with this print.
Size: The print was 75mm across and 70mm deep.   The block at the back for the leaning of the cellphone was 40mm high, 20mm wide and 75mm across.   Given the dimensions of a cellphone there is not more that could be reduced from this, obviously a slightly larger phone would require a larger base, this is perfect for a regular cellphone.
What we would do differently/next steps for students: This was a first attempt at a student producing something with a very specific goal in mind, as is mentioned throughout the print the student was extremely pleased.   The 'Christmas' theme of the design came about as it was created during the festive season, perhaps something less seasonal could have been designed. 

3D Printed Christmas Decorations - Final Run of Designs

 Left: A star designed from scratch.  Instead of using one of the star designs from the template design this student (who is a Y4 student designing for the first time) created a star design using the 'pencil' tool.   The font message on the design says '8 Xmas' in reference to the age of the creator.   He had assistance to create the hole for the hanging of the design from the tree.   Although the design could have been refined he was extremely happy with the result.  Print time to complete the project two hours. 


Left: This student decided to opt instead of producing a single print to create four separate designs on a smaller scale (that were also relatively straight forward and simplistic).   As the brief was to personalize the design the student in this case chose to write the name of their key family members across the front of the design.   Each design was 5mm thick and mainly 50mm across and 60mm high.  Given all this the print time was four hours, which was roughly an hour for each of the four key designs.   This was the students first major independent design, and as such no additional design or reprinting would be required as the brief was met,

Left: The student also peer modelled with a Y1 student (a five year old student).   The student was eager to repeat the process and personalize the decorations for herself, which is shown in the photograph to the left.    It was printed with a 'gold' PLA which was using the regular default settings on this site - a 20% infill for the print, using a 8mm nozzle to increase the print time at the sacrifice of the detail for the print. 

This design had slightly more depth to it than the one above and given the breif and plan there is no intention to reprint at this stage.

Left: Student completing the task choose to approach it by using a square block as the basis for the design.  The student then selected a basic font for the naming, used two simple illustrations for the base of the design and inserted into the top of the design a easy access way to hang the decoration.  The design shape was a 90mm square that was 5mm thick and had the lettering sunk 5mm into the base the design, this was preferable from having it on top as it produced much more definition and sharpness.  A four hour print.

Left: Produced at the same time although independently, and therefore not really influencing each other came this design.   The font used is the same as above,  and the basic layout and the objects that have been added likewise.   The print time is also very similar, although the two students were adamant that they were not working in collaboration or influencing each other, not that this would have been an issue or a bad thing.   Four hour print time.

3D Reading Stand Prototype

Challenge: To produce a reading stand to allow a student to focus on thier reading.
Background: The student is a special needs student who needs to focus on reading without being distracted by other things happening in the classroom.   The task was to produce a reading stand that would allow the student to have the book tilted and held in the reading position, meaning that the student was more focussed on their reading.   The idea was to build a prototype and then start to look at developing the idea further to develop a personalised reading stand for the student.   The success of the angle of the stand was/is crucial and is easily attained by using a 3D Printer to produce it.  With a speed of the printer the heated filament sets before the nozzle repeats the pass - thus allowing the creation of a solid shape and structure to meet the design idea - in this case the angle (as we've mentioned before with Tinkercad there is a design aspect of the main interface that allows you to create any angle of your choice).   One of the complicating factors was the size of the books that students were reading.   This student is reading early level journals (reading for five and six year olds) so the journals are thin and limited in size - hence the smaller design of the stand.

Level of Difficulty: This is a work in process.   Once the design has been refined we will post additional details as it develops.   The project when it is completed will feature a complicated design tailored for the individual student to best meet their needs.   This is the basic design so its easy, however when completed it is anticipated that the level of difficutly would be catergorised as 'hard'.
Timeframe: Ten hours - this is simply a first attempt at the process and the timeframe will be increased relative to the design.  This is a first attempt at an ongoing process.
Size: This design is measuring 140mm across the front, 100mm to the back and the top end of the  design was 100mm long and a further 140mm across.   The angle is a 45 degree angle. 
What would we do differently/next steps for students: This design is the start of a process.   The design needed to be larger.   The base was stable but would have benefitted from being thicker that would have given it more weight.   Both those aspects of the design will be addressed in future.

3D Printed iPad Stand: Exemplar

Above: the design shown from the front

Challenge: Student, while ten years old has proven to be extremely skilled at producing some exemplar quality prints.   The student wanted to ensure that a iPad stand was created that would be significant that was produced before the end of the year.
Background: Student has produced these before but wanted to push the limit of the 3D Printer with the scale of the project and the finishing.   The student wanted to mix combination of PLA produce an iPad stand and also have storage made available (as shown).   One challenge that the student hadn't anticipated was the storage on the right hand side of the print limited the space available for the iPad stand part of the print.  The student came up with a clever solution to this problem.   The student experimented with producing a separate block that was able to be used to balance the other side of the iPad (see photo).  This solved

Above: Balance block in place

the problem and allowed the balance that the student was looking for.    The student also wanted to personalize the iPad stand with combination colours.   The name block at the front was a straight forward addition, with a butterfly on the reverse.   The 'butterfly' has  been used in prints before - the rafting that was created with it was deliberately left in place to maximize the stability of the print.   The mainstay of the designs were from the Tinkercad interface.   The student concerned with this project is ten years old - however they have been responsible for a series of highly innovative and creative prints.

Above: Butterfly design on rear.

Level of Difficulty: High - as far as iPad stand designs go, this really is the most impressive one creative by a student and as such this would not be for the faint hearted.   The student has literally produced an exemplar that we will be using to show others as a top of the line design.   Everything works in relation to each other - and the one challenge that needed to be overcome the student was able to identify and solve effectively.

Above: Design shown from above

Time frame: Like the level of difficulty, this was not for everyone, the stand took twenty five hours, and in addition to this the lettering and the block took a further three hours, for a total of twenty eight hours for this project.  The thickness of the heart part of the storage could have been reduced slightly which would have affected the time slightly, but given the dimensions (see below) this is a significant project that would require a significant investment of time.
Size: The design measures 200mm across, with the stand measuring 130mm and the storage at the end a further 70mm.  The design including both the lettering and the butterfly measured 160mm.   The block at the back of the design measures 100mm high, the storage is 70mm and 90mm respectively.   The balance block was 20mm by 30mm by 20mm. 
What would we do differently/next steps for students: Initially the lack of balance due to the overhang from the iPad stand proved to be problematic, however the student herself identified the solution easily.   There isn't much more to add to what has already been written, this is a print of the highest order that really is an exemplar.

3D Printed Christmas Designs - Fourth Run of Prints

Challenge/Background: To celebrate the festive season in the classroom our students were tasked with creating a 3D Printing project with a specific goal: to personalise a ornament that would be suitable to hang from a Christmas Tree.   The students used Tinkercad, created a design and then printed it.  Selective students had to redesign and rework if it didn't work.   We have thirty students in the current Y5/6 Classroom and one Ultimaker 2+ running on a nearly full time basis.  This series of Prints has been detailed here on this blog starting with the first run of designs followed by the second run of prints and then the third run of designs, we have detailed improvements to the original designs and included several outstanding examples including this Sleigh.   This is the fourth installment featuring the second run of designs from other students

 Left: A smaller scale Christmas Tree featuring a basic design (created by students with the shape) and a small addition of a star above the name.   The design measures 70mm in height and was 5mm thick and 50mm wide.   Part of the last letter of the name, the 'y' was absent as it was designed to close to the edge of the tree.   The circular hole at the top of the tree conceivably could have been made smaller but this design was by a younger student who hadn't had much opportunity with a 3D Printer.  Print time 45 minutes on standard settings.

 Left: Created by a Y1 student, with assistance, this basic design featured in the shape of a heart with the students name and a 'horse' shape, as the student who designed it has an interest in the animals.    The star shown on the right hand side on the top of the picture is actually not attatched to the main design, it subsequently came off, as it was rafted onto the design, not on the base.   This is a minor adjustment that was going to be completed with a small adjustment.   Tinkercad allowed this student with assistance (who is Five) from a ten year old student to complete the design.    This was a two hour print which was 100mm across and 80mm high.  The designed met the brief and the student was extremely pleased. 

 Left: A basic star design created by a student who was receiving tutition from a ten year old and creating a design for the first time.    The student concerned wanted a star to sit on a specific location so she insisted that it did not have a hole in it to hang it from a tree.   The lettering was designed to dominate - and this photo was taken prior to the filament clean up that is required when a print is finished.   The design was 5mm thick and took three hours to print, with measurements of 120mm across and 70mm high.

With the exception of the mounting aspect of the print it met all the requirements that were expected.   This print is not being redesigned.


Left: Another Christmas present themed design to meet the criteria that was expected.   The name of the student was raised only 3mm from the base of the design which accounts for the slight lack of definition - and again this is prior to spending anytime to clean up the print and some of the plastic that appears to be present on the design will be removed with a small screwdriver or pair of pliers.    This design was heavily influenced by the 'present design' from earlier in the print run (who is the student who is also responsible for the Sleigh Design.    This design measured 100mm cross was 90mm high and 5mm thick.   The hole at the top is for the hanging, in hindsight the student could have perhaps used the ribbon from the top of the design.   Print time three hours.

 Left: A more advanced design in the series.   The student built this design from scratch, creating a 'Santa' design from basic shapes and including some interesting design features, such as featuring her name on the belt of the figure and printing the arms seperatly.   The arms were then super-glued onto the design in the place where the student wanted them (its the same arm design twice, so the character doesn't have two thumbs!).

The student is slightly older than most of the classroom students, being eleven.   Potentially more details could have been created for the figure (the feet etc).   Design measured 80mm across and 120mm high, and was 5mm thick.
This took four hours including all of the parts. 

Left:
This design may seem familiar, that is  because it was featured on this blog with different lettering and was produced during a powercut.   This powercut stopped the printer when it was nearly completed (two and a half hours into a three hour print) and only the lettering remained to be completed.  The student by then had completed the 'First Christmas' printing and instead of repeating this created the 'Santa' lettering and a backing plate to fit it onto and then super glued it into place.   This did not affect any of the dimensions or details of the print as previously described.

Left: Another 'Christmas Tree' themed design from the series.   Design was almost identical to the others featured in this series.   The student wanted to include several 'fun' features on the tree, as evidenced by the sun glasses and the moustache.   Student the included their own nickname on the base of the tree (student insisted on having a lower case 'p' for the start of her name) The hole again is probably a bit bigger than was required but the student (who is ten years old) was extremely pleased with the result and was able to produce a significant piece of work that met all the criteria.   The design was 100mm high and 70mm across at the base, it was 5mm thick and the print time took three hours.

3D Printed Christmas Sleigh Decoration

Above: Design shown from the front.

Challenge: As with others in this series to produce a class set of classroom decorations themed for Christmas, we're running one classroom printer non-stop to complete this over the period of four weeks.   This student has shown creativity and invention when creating 3D Projects, for this, she wanted to create from scratch a sleigh for a Christmas Decoration.
Background: Student has been working on 3D Printing projects for two years as part of the classroom program.  She has been consistently creating inventive designs that have shown flair and creativity.    This was a situation when she had a brief, had seen other projects in the series but wanted to put her own spin on the creation.  This was designed with help from her younger brother who is eight years old. 

Above: The print shown from other side

Level of Difficulty: High - this sort of design isn't for the faint hearted however she used the basic Tinkercad Interface to create all aspects of the print - with the exception of the seats and seatbelts which she sourced from material that was free and online.   All of the design, measurement and creation was original created by the student.
Timeframe: Ten hours for the print.  This print consisted of no 'rafting' what-so-ever, so there was no wasted filament.   Given the dimensions and the purpose this is the perfect design in the sequence.
Size: The front of the print measured 110mm across, was 75mm deep and 80mm high at the back and 40mm high at the front.   The individual aspects of the print varied slightly depending on the location.
What we would do differently/next steps for students: This was one of the the best prints in this design of runs, the design was particularly complicated and worked extremely well.  The student(s) involved in the print were thrilled with the result and this was one of the best examples from a student during this year.

'First Christmas' Decoration - 3D Printed Design

Challenge: For student to produce a unique and personalised 3D Printed design that could be suitable as a festive ornament to hang (from a tree).
Background: As part of the challenge of having an entire classroom of 30 students produce a 3D Print before the festive season, and then buddy with another student from another classroom this student designed to create a 'first Christmas' themed decoration relating to the fact that she had a sibling born who was celebrating just that.
The student had been influenced by another design in this series but choose to create something herself from scratch.  She decided to go with the creation of a 'Father Christmas' figure, made from using some of the primary shapes available on Tinkercad to create the shape, used a circle, which then had dropped a hole into it to meet the hanging requirement and finally personalised it by adding the message in a clear basic font at the front of the design.  The student who created this was a Y5 student and this essentially was her first design independently.
Level of Difficulty: Low - however this particular design works well in conjunction with the sum of its part.   The student was wanted the print to be robust and work and purposefully did not add too much detail to the print. 
Timeframe: Two and half hours - the size was kept to a minimum so the time was reasonable.
Size: The design measured 100mm across the front, the front section featuring the 'First Christmas' message was 5mm thick, 20mm long.  The santa design was a further 95mm high and 20mm across.
What we would do differently/next steps for students: Nil - the student was extremely excited by the project and pleased with the end result, and vowed not to change anything - it was commented to her that the 'Father Christmas' looked a little like a 'Christmas Worm' however she laughed this off.

3D Printed 'Name' Design with Revision

Above: Original design shown printed

Challenge: Student wanted to design a gift for another student themed around her name.   The student designed and completed this project, however on reflection it needed considerable revision to be completed to a standard that the student was happy with.

 Background: This student who is ten years old has shown creativity and flair with her 3D Printing design.  Her intial design that is shown left was somewhat cluttered, featuring a number of additions to the base of the design.   This caused the printer a little difficulty to create so much detail in such a relatively small place, as a result a lot of the design look too crowded and the student who the print was intended for (Isabella) didn't have the obvious connection between her print and name. 

This was discussed with the student who went to redesign the print considerably.    The new design replaced the clutter of the original and focussed on having the name of the student featured on the design.  This featured two of the original additions to the first print but both were centred in the middle of the design, without additional clutter around them.   The 'name' part of the design, which was originally completly absent was now inserted into the middle of the design. 
Level of Difficutly: Medium - this design is relatively straight forward but it took a discussion with the student to acknowledge the details created by the printer to get to the final result.   Sometimes projects located online that require a lot of detail are best suited by using a smaller nozzle, but our preference (which is using a 3D Printer within a classroom containing nearly thirty students) is to use the largest nozzle that is possible for the speed of the prints that are produced (yes we could constantly switch back between both but we tend to allow the students to manage as much of the process as possible and not at the level yet of changing the hardware over, although they do change filament).   

The two designs next to each other

Timeframe: This print took six hours to complete, with the regular settings that are used on this site.  Purple happened to be the colour that was loaded into the machine rather than a specific colour choice and this in term happened to be a positive accident with the finished product.
Size: The top of the design is 130mm across, 60mm across in the middle and 130mm high.   The print has a height of 10mm.    Given the intention of the print, its design relative to this size, and the display potential of this there wouldn't be much reduction that would be possible in the size.
What we would do differently/next steps for students: The design as it stands dosen't have any capacity for it to be fixed to a wall or hung.   The students creation with the lettering into the base of the design meant that the 'rafiting' or backing hasn't been removed.   This is because the internal parts of the 'b' and the 'a' would be removed when the rafting taking away, affecting the design, ideally the end of the 'a' would also have been moved in slightly from the edge of the design as it is missing its end.

Refining 3D Printed Christmas Designs and further ideas

Challenge: As part of the 3D Print Christmas Design Challenge, students who had created or produced a first run print, that needed refinement, were redesigning and reproducing the print with improvements to meet the outcome that we were seeking.
Background: We're attempting to complete thirty classroom prints of original 'Christmas' themed designed decorations from our class (thirty students) and then a further thirty other students from throughout the school.  In the design shown left in the original version the student wanted the penalization in the form of the nickname 'Horsey'.  In the first print shown left, the 'Horsey' was raised on the base of the print, however with the size of the lettering being small (10mm in height) the name did not appear to be recognizable.   The student subsequently redesigned this, introducing 'Horsey' to the base and sinking it into the design, which made it clearly visible.   Otherwise with the exception of some minor readjustments the design was completed, with the small addition of a heart to hang the design.

 Left: The smallest design in this sequence.   The idea behind this was to produce something simple but effective.   The print time for this label was one hour, making it a 'classic' short term print.   However the student has been given the task of personalizing it as at present it is extremely generic.   This design measures 40mm high by 80mm long and is 5mm thick. 

Left: This design was created by a seven year old.   The basic premise was the same for the rest of the process and design, however the student placed the hanging hole too close to the point of the star at the top, creating a gap in the star, the name of the student in the middle of the star was not large enough and too ill defined.   The student concerned was thrilled with the result, but a simple matter will be to reproduce this and simply make it larger this will allow the name to be defined and the star points to have the hole centred.   A positive experience for the student and a forty minute print time at present, which means the results were relatively quick.

3D Printed Christmas Decorations - Third Run of Prints

 Left: Another basic 'star' design to start with including the addition of the lettering message of penalization.   The design measures 90mm across but the amount of filament has been minimized with a thickness of 5mm and just under a two hour print time.   The size of the hole to attach to the tree on reflection is probably too large, however it still fulfills the purpose, no additional changes will be made as the task has been successfully completed.

 Left: Using a square base design this student opted to include a Christmas Tree on the left of the design, the initials of the person that it was gifted too in the centre and three stars.   Two were raised up the third was sunk through the design creating the gap in the print.  A 5mm thickness was used to reduce printing time, and the lettering and stars were raised 5mm from the base.   This print came in and two and a half hours.

 Left: A snowman.   This print encountered some issues.   The hat design, where the hole for attaching the print to the tree failed, it was too large and this caused the hat itself to implode (which was subsequently removed as it was not solid).   The base of the hat rim remained as this could be used to attach it to the tree.   The name of the student who created it was sunk into the bottom of the design, this failed due to the lettering chosen being too small and the name 'Georgia' too long.  With a 5mm thickness and a three hour print time with a 80mm height and 50mm across.   Student very happy but if required to meet objectives then a considerable redesign is required.

 Left: Basic Tree design - two hours, with a name focused at the bottom, a basic star at the top with the hole for the attachment placed there.   This was the first print for an adult who was supported in her creation by having one of the other students create and teach her the design basics, which she mastered in three to five minutes.   No adjustments would be made moving forward.     5mm thick, with the lettering rising a further 5mm and a height of 100mm and a width of 50mm.  Very similar to the design shown right.

 Left: This student wanted to have an angel shaped design which they created themselves, with a star and their name featuring significantly.  The wings proved to be a little tricky to master resulting in the block shape, although the student themselves was very pleased and no additional work was required.   100mm high 60mm across and between 5mm and 20 thick depending on the location.   Three hours print time on default settings (which of course are a 8mm nozzle and 20% infill and regular PLA.)

Christmas Decorations: Second Run of Prints

The posts in this series followed a first set of prints, detailed below and inspired by the 'Christmas Tree' Print from two days ago.  Since then we have expanded the project to target producing thirty individual prints (for the students in our classroom) and a further thirty prints for a buddy, another student from elsewhere in the classroom.

 Left - Further development of the 'Snowman' idea.   This print shown is prior to the removal of excessive PLA filament.   The student attempted to personalise this by adding the names of her family members on the body of the snowman and placing a soccerball in the middle.   The print has excessive PLA printing on the back, due to its 3D Design (this is going to be detailed in a further, separate print).  This is a 100mm high, 60mm across snowman, which is 10mm deep.  It has a four hour print time which could be significantly reduced.

This print will be reconfigured to remove the cluster of names and lettering on the base of the design.

Left: An original Christmas Tree design, featuring the initials of the student that designed it with their initials featuring prominently in the design.  An attempt was made to have a star at the top of the tree, this was not successful as removal of the rafting also resulted in teh removal of the star.   The student was a nine year old making their first attempt at 3D Printing.   The tree was 80mm high and 60mm acoss at the base.   The design was only 4mm thick which was reflected in the print time of just under two hours.

This is a good basic design for junior students or students who are attempt to print for the first time.

 Left: A snowman inspired design.   The lettering on the base of the Snowman reflected the name of the family that the siblings are part of.  Due to the length of this name and the space available with the Chirstmas message there was considerable issue with the font that was printed.   To remedy this in the re-design the student is going to increase the size of the base and experiment with the lettering.   The design is currently 100mm high, 70mm across and 5mm thick.  Two hours to print.

This design will require reworking relative to the size of the design and the size of the lettering and would be described as medium difficulty.

Left: Designed by a learning support adult in the classroom, these two designs were essentially the same design twice.  In the design the names were prominent and featured a simple star as additional decoration.   The designs were created using Tinkercad and printed with the standart defaults (8mm nozzle/20% infill) on our Ultimaker 2+ Machines.    Two hours to print both decorations, these are not requiring an revision or redesign as task is completed.

Left: A more advanced version of this task.   This is a three dimensional present, with the ribbon used to hang the object.  Of note the width of this print, coming in at 20mm is considerably thicker than the others on this page, which typically are 5mm.   The dimensions of the print are 10mm by 80mm and the print time for this is six hours.   There is minimal 'rafting' with this print.   This is a particularly high level of completion of the task and does not require any improvements or additional detail