3D Printed: Articulated Snapmaker Prints

Challenge: Students wanted to use the new 3D Printer (Snapmaker) and print a project based around an articulated animal.   Once this was produced the challenge put to the students was/is to create and design their own original articulated animal.

The first step in the process was to create the stimulus by using the printer to create something that could be easily located in this case we used Thingiverse a free website with design and sourced files created by others.   There was a range of articulated animals that were able to be downloaded and printed.   The initial idea was these animals would be a quick or relatively quick print and attract attention due to the articulated nature of their design.   Initial prints included cats, dogs, sharks and a ferret.   

The designs were all printed as a single print with absolutely minimal or no rafting or PLA as we have mentioned which is one of the positives of using the new printer (as was not the case with the Ultimaker that we had used in the past.

 The next step was to use spray painting on the designs to add to their presentation.   Examples of this can be see by the articulated shark shown on the left had side.   This was one of the early creations, the student involved used their creativity to spray paint the top and base of

the shark with the appropriate colour.     

This affect can be seen in particular detail via the base or bottom of the shark as shown in the photograph on the left.   The student involved in this process is a Y6 student in New Zealand, so they are a ten year old.   It was also important to give the student (and the group that they were working with) the experience of printing using the interface and the downloading and transferring of files, all of which they were easily capable of.   Print time for the shark was three hours which was very reasonable for the size of the print (20mm in total).

The articulated ferret was another animal in the series that was located and printed following an identical format to the shark.   While printed on a black base PLA and looking more than acceptable the student wanted to really 'pop' the design and hence the use of the yellow for the background and the red that was added.   The strength of the joints with the articulation here needs mentioning - there was clear flexibility with the pieces of the ferret and each was/is able to be manipulated to create a movement affect (which in turn made the object something that was constantly played with and handled).     

The first task for the students was to produce the linking for the articulation.   The photograph shown left is the students first attempt to reproduce the linking that was present in the prints downloaded via Thingiverse - once this has been mastered the final step will be taking this linking and applying it to a design of an animal that the students can create or design.    The linking was created using Tinkercad.

In New Zealand it is currently the school holidays.   The student produced the prototype of the articulated chain linking in the photograph shown above on the last day of school and was so happy with the process and the final product that she took it home on the final day.   They will recommence the next stage and completion of the project when they return to school and this project will be updated.   The student involved in the articulation linking project is a capable design student who is eleven years old.