Using a Printing Error to Problem Solve

Challenge: This print was created and designed by a student but with a significant flaw - can it be engineered to be solved using the 3D Printer. 

Background: A returning student, who is still a junior at our school (nine years old) has prove herself to be competent and design and create using Tinkercad to a variety of projects.  In this example she wanted to create a personalised stationary holder, of which there are a multitude of designs and creations on this blog.  There are some examples here.

However when this project was completed the student realised that she had made a significant error with the design - the centre part of the design when through the length of the entire design leaving a hole at the base of the design meaning that it was unrealistic to use it for storage.   Instead of repeating the print again we challenged the student concerned with looking at ways to engineer a solution to this print and solve this problem.

The view of the design underneath shown left clearly shows the problem - and to the right you can see the students first and second attempt at creating a problem solving for this situation.

In the first attempt she attempted to create a plug that was based around the total size of the cylinder making up the storage, hence she used incorrect measurements that would not work in conjunction with the design.   Her second attempt to do so produced a much more realistic and successful design, which required a light amount of sanding with a piece of sandpaper for the completion of the project.  The final part was to give the student the ability to look at the combination of the print and work out what else could be used to seal the base of the design - the student has since looked into research about resin and other ways to seal the base of the print.

Level of Difficulty: Medium - once it was established what the fault was the process of solving the problem was very straight forward and the student was able to produce the initial replacement part easily, then a second when they realised their mistake.  As with a lot of prints we want to involve a student in an engineering process so they will learn as part of the design (and in this case the problem solving).

Size: The initial print measured 90mm across was 80mm deep.  The base was 10mm high and the tower (storage) of the design was 60mm high.  The initial replacement piece (which was ultimately not used) was 40mm across and 30mm wide.  The second version was 25mm across and 20mm wide.   

Timeframe: The initial print was eight hours, the two replacement pieces to plug the gap were one hour and thirty minutes for the second (successful) print.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students: In this case the pleasing result was a problem was solved in a meaningful and independent way by a student.  The process was completed successfully and a new avenue of research and ideas was looked into - and there was no wasted PLA.