3D Printing: Beginning Steps and Refining Projects

 

As we're currently in the first term of a new school year in New Zealand we have a group of new students, who are Y3-4 currently working on their very first 3D Prints and 3D Projects. 

As we have detailed this process in considerable detail already on this blog, we won't repeat too much of the process etc.   but suffice to say that the seven and eight year old students tend to start with the basics and complete the basics well - in this example the student was thrilled with their effort (so much so that they didn't want to repeat the print, despite the obvious printing error.   This print was the first print by a student who used the 'flipped' instructional video which is the step by step guide to producing a basic Tinkercad print and design.  This print took just over two hours to print was 120mm across, 90mm high and the base was 10mm thick.  The lettering for the names of the people in the students family were designed to be different heights and the student was really pleased with the result.

At the more advanced level we have a student who had a major roll in the School Market Day which took place at the end of last year.  This student was responsible for sourcing SVG files (that were public domain, freely available) and converted these for 3D Printing, originally adapting a cow design into a number of other designs.  These were able to be produced quickly and once the design was sorted mass produced using the 3D Printer.   It was ideally suited for this process as it was able to produce robust ear rings that could be produced in twenty minutes or so.   The student is going to be running a small scale innovation business this year along these lines - and the Dolphins are the first design that she has worked on at this stage.   They are currently taking twenty minutes each to print measuring 90mm high, 30mm to 45mm across and are currently 5mm thick.   

Finally as can be seen, also from the same photo, the student who opted to laser cut the iPhone holder has started to revise the design by using the 3D Printer to produce something with more strength to it.  Her first design will need refinement for while it looks to be a successful fit to the base, which she still intends using the laser cut base for testing has shown that she needs to check again to develop it further.