3D Printed Mini Book Stand

Above: Design shown in profile showing the overall shape

Challenge: For student to create a 3D Printed bookstand.   The student wanted to presonalise this with detail and adding unique and additional features to the design.

Above: Emoji design that forms the basis of the sides

Background: The design was initially created as a bookend, however due to the design and aspects of the design it was apparent that it would allow books to be placed directly between the two sides of it, hence the potential to be used as a bookstand.   The student has developed a variety of prints, a number of these have been featured on this blog.   The student has shown increased confidence in creating original prints that are creative and innovative.   The student is a ten year old student working with 3D Printer in the classroom for the second consecutive year.

Above: Back of the design showing the butterfly

Level of Difficulty: Medium.   The bookstand had numerous features that were added to it, and some of these at times have proven slightly problematic.  The face shown on the left, which makes the sides of the bookstand, had a significant amount of filament that required removal, and as noted in the past, this removal tends to require particular skill to remove without causing damage to the PLA of the print itself.   The print of the butterfly required particualr care to remove it.
Timeframe: Twelve hours.   The entire print was created, designed and run in a single print.   Given the dimensions of the print and the purpose of it, which evolved into having books sittiing inside it, the print size and subsequent time to print it would be the minimum required.  The exception would be the additional features that were added to the print in the design by the student.

Size: The base of the design was a 100mm by 100mm square.   The butterfly base, which was at the end of the design was of a similar dimension.   The sides of the bookstand, created by the emoji were essentially a similar dimension but were round in shape.    The thickness of the design varied from point to point but the width was generally in the range of 50mm.   The butterfly wings of paricular note were only 2mm thick in places.
What we would do differently: The student tried to put as much features into the design as possible,    She almost created too much material for the design.   She also had the 'tounge' part of the emoji design which went past the base of the design, creating a slighlty uneven design.   Ideally she should have adapted this part of the design so that the tip of the tounge joined to the base of the design. 
Next stepss for the student: The student could have refined the design to ensure that it concentrated on a small number of additions to the design.  Obviously the student needs to check their prints before the final print run to make sure they balance as perfectly as possible.