3D Printed Design: Split into halves

Challenge: Can a print be split perfectly into two seperate and distinct halves?

Background: Looking to extend some students who were taking their first steps with 3D Printing.   Following tutorials that the students watched that had been created by former students they produced the design on the left.   This design took three hours to print was 100mm across 95mm high and 10mm thick.   When it was completed we discussed ways in which to alter and change it, which the students agreed to do by taking it and spray painting it.   The next challenge to get the students to deveop their design and thinking skills was how can we take this design and split it into two equal parts, down the middle so it consisted of two seperate pieces - would that be possible?   The students spent time brainstorming possible solutions and design modifications that needed to be made, they realised quickly

that the initial print didn't have the lettering centered correctly, the word best was slightly off, so that was adjusted.   'friends' also needed adjustment as in addition to having an odd number of letters was not correctly placed on the print.

Left you can see the original design, which was subsequently spray painted to alter the colour and the second copy that was made.   This consisted of two seperate prints with the dvision between the print coming directly down the middle of the design.

The solution to the problem of cutting the print in half came from a third student who realised that a hole could be placed over the full design to mask half of the print, and then the print was downloaded and printed.   When the hole was then shifted to the second side of the print it was a matter of ensuring that the same measurement or point at which the print was split was repeated so that the two halves of the print matched, while this seems a little complicated the students involved mastered it at the first attempt and the two havles matched perfectly.

Level of Difficulty: High, until a plan was developed to identify how to cover one half of the design and then print the other without compromising the original design which the students mastered at the first attempt.

Size: The remodelled design was slightly smaller than the original being 90mm across and 90mm high.   The print remained 10mm thick with the lettering a further 5mm above the base of the print.

Timeframe: The two seperate pieces took just over an hour each so slightly less than the original.

What we would do differently: The two seperate prints need to be decorated which the students will likely opt to do with spray painting.   They are looking for the opportunity to use chains to hang the designs from.    This is two nine year olds first experience with a 3D Printer so it can be considered to be extremely succesful.