Tuesday, May 22, 2018

3D Printed iPad Stand - Short Term

Challenge: For student to create an iPad stand that was able to be printed in the realistic shortest possible time.   Student had seen a number of classroom examples, many of which have been featured as posts shown on this blog.
Background: The student was interested in producing this to allow her to have her iPad on a stand.  She had seen various versions around our classroom and was looking at a way to minimise the size.   She was asked to personalise the design and she choose to put her name on the top (as shown) and an apple design on the back of the stand.   The naming aspect was produced from the basic Tinkercad design 'typing' feature.  The 'Apple' design on the reverse of the design was sourced from Tinkercad, using a generic search.  The student involved in the production of this 3D Print was a nine year old student who was creating her first major 3D project, and has been working with printers for the first time.
Level of Difficulty: Medium - this student was able to produce this successfully with her first version of the design.   The emphasis on producing as smaller iPad stand as possible directed the design in part.
Timeframe - Eight hours.  While this may seem considerable if you reference the print times of the other iPad stands, which were generally in the twelve hour range.  Given all aspects of the print it would not be practical to reduce the print design in size further, to still be able to have an iPad sit safely on it.
Size: The design was 100mm across, 120mm long and 20mm thick.   The design block at the rear of the design was 100mm high.  The lettering with the name of the student was 20mm high raising from the top of the block. 
What we would do differently: Minimal - the student created this design and was extremely pleased with the results, the design and the use of the iPad stand.   The student had a specific goal in mind with this process and was able to achieve this.  We have been mixing PLA with projects to produce different effects from the design.   The student choose not to use this technique and instead printed this as a single block, however on the balance of things this would be a minor consideration.
Next Steps for student: Given the success of the process the student needs to challenge herself to move onto other projects.

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