3D Prints - Resetting a Long Print

Disclaimer: This site is designed to share ideas related to 3D Printing in the classroom - and general school tasks and challenges.  We have used essentially two brands of machines for its duration with a change made only in the last few years due to our victory in a national competition which allowed us to switch.

However there have been some unexpected bonuses that have developed with the printers (Snapmakers) at present which in an educational setting need addressing.   The first is that having switched the brand of machines we are spending very minimum of time unblocking the machines - unfortunately due to the age of our previous machines (even the reconditioned ones) we were sometimes finding them challenging (as school teachers, not engineers).

An example from a print today - a student designed the base of a box - the print was a very long print, nearly thirty hours.   The printer ran out of PLA filament at the eighteen hour mark.   In normal circumstances one might expect that the printer might fail and the entire process might have to be started again - however this was not the case.   The printer was able to recognise the PLA had run out and it came up with a message explaining this.    It was awaiting additional PLA to finish the print.  When this was loaded into the machine the machine was able to return to the print at exactly the place that it had stopped and therefore continue the print perfectly.  The printer has also repeated this during a power cut (that it recognised the power cut and therefore knew that it had occurred and was able to restart at the exact point).

In the past both of these instances would cause the print and the project to restart.

Advanced Teacher Led Projects Using 3D Printers

 

This project is a significant project which students have been working on for the past six months.   A small group has designed a marble maze, which will work in conjunction with a laser cut board.   The theme of the marble maze is Star Wars based.   The 3D Printer has been used to make the stormtrooper heads shown in purple on the design.  They have been printed translucent with an LED light mounted into each of them.   The centre of the Death Star in the middle of the maze was printed by using a 3D printer to create the model.    This is a significant school project (previous projects have included a working Pinball Machine, video located here - competition finals are live streamed each year you can view the 2022 finals here).  These designs were sourced from Thingiverse and are freely available public domain.

Turbine for Hydro Project - This was designed by a teacher as a prototype for the students to use.   We are engaging in a project related to hydro flow and water flow - so this instance was a working model to encourage the students.

A twenty eight hour print the turbine was to use with an axel with the idea it could be used with additional software or material (such as Arduino Kit) to measure the rate of water flow at a particular location.  By 3D printing the model the size of the turbine can be customised for a number of locations.   In this instance the turbine has proven to be surplus to requirements.   Because of this it is going to be used in conjunction with Sphero Robots to provide an opportunity to turn the robots into the motor to run a boat.   We are going to use technical lego to connect the turbine to a boat that is powered by the robot.  We will post further about both projects as they develop.

Senior Student: Practical Craft Market Experience

 

One of our most popular series of prints in recent years from both the students perspective and feedback from visitors at our school has been the set of flexi-animals created by a senior student.

This students saw similar examples online and was able to deconstruct the process by identifying the flexi-linking, by using Tinkercad (following some tutorials from Youtube) 

The student has talked in the past about the potential to run a stall at the local market.  Our school has made this possible by making the 3D Printers available and allowed the student to use the machines at the cost of the PLA to produce the prints.   The student is then going to sell these prints (which it should be pointed out she has designed from scratch including making a set of originals) to the general public to see if she can run a small niche business.

The student concerned had a significant number of potential prints available.  However for the market process which she is going through she has settled on four designs for the first market print run.

She choose the Kiwi the symbol of New Zealand as it is a unique and iconic symbol and one of the designs that has received significant feedback.  Details of this print can be located here.

Another practical print with a clear use was the counting caterpillars.   These were commissioned by the junior part of our school who wanted unique counters to assist the students in counting by producing flexible number lines.   The design was initially created here using a slug as the basis before evolving in the caterpillar design.  You can click on the hyperlinks to find out more details about the prints described.

For the final two designs she has opted for the butterfly and dolphin.   Both of these designs have been remodelled since their initial appearances here on this blog.   The butterfly was one of the first complicated prints that the student linked and worked on.  It was this design that was discovered to also work as a floating toy in the school swimming pool.

This project eventually morphed into an excellent series of lessons culminating in a series of creations from the junior school now producing their own versions of these prints.  We intend to update the progress of this process (ie the market selling of these items) once it is complete.  We have previously held a market day at our school where one of the businesses was based on flexi-animals (although these were by and large not produced by the students instead coming from sites like Thingiverse.

3D Printed - Seven Year Olds Original Design

Challenge: Creation time to make something unique, make something that has a purpose and something that is useful.  This is a free design challenge time which has allowed our students to come up with concepts and ideas that are unique and original.   We have then moved the best of these designs through to the production stage.

Background: This student is seven years old, however she has consistently shown an excellent eye for details and has produced creative and consistent problem solving contents and originals.   A number of these prints have already featured on this blog such as the money box.   This student despite being very young is able to work independently, to create something with a purpose and get the elements of design correct and detailed.   In this instance there was a verbal communication with her to add some basic details (the cats face) however the entire process, design and details were unique and original to her.   

Level of Difficulty: Medium - however it does need to be pointed out that this student is seven years old.   She is currently the student from the ten or so students in the classroom who consistently and independently has balanced and creative designs, but most importantly designs that are serving a purpose - in this instance to be able to solve a problem or identify something to be fixed, which was the storage of her eraser.    The Tinkercad Interface served as the design, all of the key geometric shapes were sourced from here until the student was happy and then she stretched and manipulated them on her iPad to create the shape that she wanted.

Size: The cat measured 120mm long in length, was 50mm high from the feet to the top and was 45mm wide along the duration of the body of the object.   The student specifically wanted something to hold her erasers (although has since discovered that her memory stick would fit perfectly in there) 

Timeframe: Four Hours - there was some basic rafting on the bottom of the design between the feet however this was insignificant.     These dimensions/infill etc were right for the design.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students: The student was very happy with the overall design.  The design took a targeted period of time (around half an hour from start to finish).  The student liked the exaggerated features, including having the oversized ears.   The feet of the design were off balance as well again the student was more than happy with this.