3D Printed Market Day: Bath Toys

 

Our groups are currently preparing for our 2025 Market Day at school, which is being held at the start of next term (so this term we are completing the process of making of the personalised items).    As we have stated before one of the groups is based around the idea of bath toys.

They are now producing their items for our school event.   They have been testing the prototypes and also looking at refining their original ideas to ensure that they are unique but also viable to be sold for a nominal fee.

As we have detailed previously with a 20% infill as a default for nearly everything we print here in most cases the 3D print as a result is buoyant and will float when placed in water.

The group came up with the idea of producing a range of Octopi called 'Ollie the Octopus' which are produced in a range shown left.   The students have created features on their designs and also added some basic accessories for the design, although this created several challenges.

One of the most pressing has been the fact that when the print floats in water if it is too top heavy it will tip over instantly as is the case with the angled top hat shown left.   Students have addressed this issue by ensuring that the print is balanced.   The same issue arose earlier this year with our boat building challenge.

This has taught the student a valuable lesson in balance.  We also have had opportunities to test the prints.  Our junior students have a morning once a week where they have a discovery time at this time they are able to create and explore.   This past Friday one of the activities involved 3D Printed designs which have featured on this blog in the past.   These designs are now several years old however there has been no affect on the prints since they have been completed and they are constantly used as a point of reference.

We included prints shown left such as the butterfly from 2022, the Amazon Dolphin from 2023.    Students were able to interact with this prints, some of which floated and some of which if they had a hole in them, as a result of the printing process,