3D Printed Furniture: Micro Edition

 

Challenge: For a student to produce an original and functional piece of furniture.

Background: Regular readers of this blog who have been following our project work for 2025 will be familiar with the overall project of producing Dolls House furniture.

Some of the biggest prints in this project have come out at over fifteen hours.   The couch that was shown left was designed to be micro scale and as a result was about to be printed in ninety minutes.

This was designed with the figures in mind that we had been using to scale the designs, but while one figure fits rather snugly in this couch it works perfectly with another range of micro characters.

The student also wanted to add additional features into the design, so it wasn't simply a block of shapes.  He added in cup holders in the arm rests, smaller cushions in the corner, created the illusion of seats and placed two shapes in the base of the design.

The entire project was completed from start to finish by an eight year old student using his iPad, Tinkercad and designing for the second consecutive year.

Size: As a lego scale print the couch measures 90mm across was 40mm and was 30mm high at the back - while this scale doesn't fit the figure first shown left it does more than perfectly fit the smaller scale figures mentioned.   To scale it up for the figure shown above the dimensions would need to double or potentially triple which would lead to increased dimensions and print time.

Timeframe: Ninety minutes in present form.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students:

This couch needs to be adapted to complete the task for the larger figure, although there is potential to produce them for a smaller figure as identified.   The student has opted to create the cushions by shaping the base of the couch, a discussion will be held about modifying the base or introducing something similar to the lines of a cushion, although if this was going to be placed into a junior classroom we would want to ensure that it would be robust enough to last, which would lean towards it being printed as a single piece.