3D Printed Furniture: Double Bunk Bed

 

Challenge: To produce a working piece of (robust) Dolls House furniture suitable for a bedroom.

Background: This task has been explained in detail on this blog including details of the original project, how it has developed and how the students have shaped the design.   We are now at the stage where we have completed the project and are now printing the final runs of prints.

Having worked on the designs on the project for a number of weeks, having developed and refined the designs the students have reworked, developed and AR/VR their designs and examples.    We feel confident that we have addressed the issue of the balance of the designs and also the base, where we replaced the various feet for designs and replaced them with blocks, to ensure that enthusiastic junior school students do not break (easily) the designs.

The student in this case is a Y4 (eight) year old student who is designing (using Tinkercad) for the first time.     The student wanted to create a double bunk bed and had seen the previous example from another student

Some of the features that were shown in this example the student used to further his own design.  He placed a ladder for access, and by making it oversized it has given further strength to the design.   The decal that is being used for the blanks will have the shapes in the base create an image of being raised.    There is a small technical detail as there is a visible sight light along the side shown in the the middle photograph.  This came from having the filament roll tighten during printing.   The teacher noticed this, corrected the problem and although it did not affect the final print it was noticeable.  It gave the classroom an excellent discussion point during the day, including taking the original design and comparing it to the print to see where the fault had occurred.

Size: This is one of the biggest prints in the series of furniture pieces as it is intended as a statement or an exemplar piece.   It has considerable dimensions 110mm across 90mm long and 90mm high.   The print also has the four columns and the base pieces which are 20mm wedges.  There was considerable rafting as the entire middle portion of the print (the bottom bunk) was fully rafted - printing it in parts which this would have reduced the rafting would also mean that the strength of the print was not there.

Timeframe: Eighteen hours on the regular default settings.   This is a very long time, but this is also something that we anticipate will last for years and be used for creative play by a significant amount of children.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students: This design is completed and has passed all of the tests that we have put forward for it.  It has been suggested that we could modify this design to work for a 'barbie' sized doll, while we would consider this it would depend on the success of this at its current scale as that would be achieved first.