3D Printed Flexi-Animals Update

 

Challenge: To create a range of original flexi-animals

Background: During the year this challenge has been given to several students to use their design skills and create original flexi-animals or flexible 'fidget' like designs.   While these are available online and the Bambu online portal now has a click and drag tutorial to create these we have used it as an advanced design technique for students to work through to master the process.

We have previously posted about the start of the process in May with previous medium that was created by former students (that is students who were current at the time, but have now left the school)

This was when students went through the process of following ball and hinge creation tutorials to work flexibility into the designs.   The students continue to work on designs and continued to refine what they had made.   By the end of June the first original linking animals had been created and tested, although the linking was requiring further development.   You can view the June update by clicking on the link to the post here.   Recently the students identified for the School 2025 Market Day that a viable business could be run by making original designs and creations for this.    

The version in blue shown left, and above left is the final Snapmaker version of the print.   The finish shown left (on the right) is the latest Bambu version (as we have detailed regularly there is a difference in quality and time from the two printers such as demonstrated here).    As we are looking at flexibility of the print we have determined the Bambu as the most suitable for this project.

The student is now going to apply the flexible linking to the silhouette of an animal as was the intention in the first place.   By using the linking which has shown to be robust and working the student can apply this to a multitude of designs and shapes by following the same format.   This was how we produced a range of original flexi-animals in 2022.

Level of Difficulty: Hard - this has been a long term project and while there are potential short cuts the student has developed the skill to do it, which has taken several months to get to the final design.  The student is eight years old and has been working independently, aided only by previous videos created by a twelve year old student of our school.

Size: As it stands now the design is currently measuring 120mm long 100mm wide at the base of the tree and is 10mm thick.

Cost: According to estimates now available for printing that are clearly there this print cost for regular filament is 80c and 90c for glow-in-the-dark filament.

Timeframe: Two hours and ten minutes (Snapmaker) - as noted the preference is for using the Bambu H2D to produce the final version due to finish and the completion time.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students:  As noted there is develop coming from this linking this project to others and a range of designs, which the student can now easily master.    The finish for the fidget toy is also to be determined.