Challenge: For a student new to 3D Printing to challenge themselves with the design details.
Background: Its been ten years of 3D Printed designs from students featured on this blog. During this time the the machines that the students have been using to print have continued to evolve and improve. Ten years ago the first machines that we used produced prints that were functional but lacked details.
Our upgrade from Ultimaker to Snapmaker took place in 2022. These machines have continued to allow the students to come up with creative and interesting designs which in the past would not be possible. An example is shown above. This student is a junior student at our school, a Y3 who is working on 3D Design using Tinkercad for the first time. The student has produced several prints that have already featured on this blog from this first year of designs.
In this design you can see the first version of the print prior to the removal of the rafting, and with the removal shown left. The student wanted to develop a person standing outside of their house, with the house being used for storage. The student created a house and then designed a figure at the front left. They added additional details such as the fence shown at the front, and the dog house shown at the front right. The student wanted to make a door and a window, allowing the storage at the rear of the house.
The issue was potentially if the rafting could be removed without compromising some of the smaller features of the design. In this instance the teacher involved used a small pair of pliers and a small screw driver to remove the additional plastic PLA from the design.
Level of Difficulty: Medium - while this student is a relative novice to 3D Printing this design has a number of aspects that make it detailed and creative. This was completed independently and the student was thrilled with the aspects of the design, the composition etc. The teacher was not so sure as he felt (incorrectly) that the fence would not be successful.
Timeframe: Five hours. The dimensions of the print were not overly large, the amount of storage possible is reflected in this. The student with hindsight wanted to print this on a larger scale but as noted the teacher was dubious with the features, the nozzle and the timeframe if they would be successful. This will be revised on a larger scale now that we know it will be successful.
Size: 80mm across and 60mm deep - 50mm high. These dimensions allowed the print to be completed and then tested for its viability. The student has already planned to upscale this design to ensure that it was able to hold more material.
What we would do differently/next steps for the student: On many levels this was very successful. The students has used other tools in the past but this is his first design that he can be really excited about which he felt was his. He should continue to be motivated to work on ideas and designs which we will do our best to make. He worked independently which also challenged the teachers thinking as he didn't think that he could complete the design and it would work - however it was more than successful and also allowed the teacher to look at the progress over the past ten years and see how the ideas have developed.
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