3D Printed Advanced Themed Stationary Holder

Above: Base of the design shown above.

Challenge: Student looking to push themselves by producing an advanced multi-part desk stationary holder with a 'tractor' theme, personalised for the student that it was intended as a gift for.
Background: This student has completed a number of previous projects and was looking to extend herself by producing something significants with an original creation - she made the decision early on to create this project from scratch, not relying on prebuilt models of using freely available models - this proved to be challenging as she needed things to be relative to scale and also wanted it to have a purpose that it was able to store stationary.   The wheels had to look right, but we're required to work.  She originally created an 'all in one design' featuring all the wheels, lettering and scoop for the tractor in a single design.   This design didn't have the desired affect, as the wheels and the scoop suffered from being part of a single block.   When this was discussed with the student it was redesigned featuring components - the base shown above left, this had a much more polished affect that the student was very pleased with.  To put this in context this student is ten years old.

Left: The component pieces - shown in profile - a name label of the student that it was a gift for (bottom left).   The four wheels and the 'reverse' scoop (at the rear of the tractor).    The combined print time for these additional pieces of the project was four hours - this included the significant front scoop shown below.

Left: The front scoop, the dominating feature of the design of the tractor.   This was printed as part of the component pieces of the design, with the delibrate use of the grey PLA plastic to contrast with the base (see below).   This is the print prior to removal of the 'rafting' we try and always keep this to a minimum as it essentially the waste of the print, but at times it is unavoidable.




Level of Difficulty: High - it is slightly deceptive because while the print would appear straightforward it has been built from scratch and all of the component pieces need to work in relation to each other.   There are significant additional features related to the presentation of this piece - some of these had to be redesigned several times to ensure that they were completed to the students satisfaction.   It involved considerable design and reworking, testing and adapting - for this student the design stretched them to a considerable level and should be considered amongst the most difficult challenges for a ten year old student to complete.  In addition to all these considerations the bottom line was that the deisgn needed to be functional, as it had a specific purpose and needed to work.
Timeframe: Ten hours for the base, the foundation of the tractor and four hours for the additional parts to complete the design.  There was potential to modify this to reduce the time - a combined fourteen hours for the entire design, as it usual for projects featured on this blog a 8mm nozzle was used on the printer and the infill was 20% of the total print (these are the default settings essentially).
Size:    The base of the print 100mm long, 50mm across, 60mm high at the front.   It was 135mm high at the back.   The inside storage part of the base was 35mm by 40mm and 70mm deep.   The wheels were 20mm at the back and 10mm at the front.   The main scoop extended 70mm across from the back to the front.   The other additional features were relative to that.
What we would do differently/next steps for the students:
The student was fully extended by this task and completed it to the best of her abilities.  Her intention with the deisgn was to experiment with using spray paint to complete the design, otherwise the print design, conception and production was considered extremely successful.