3D Printing History: Revisiting Previous Past Projects

 

We have mentioned that the quality and details that are produced by the 3D Printers that we use at school has increased significantly over the course of time.   Even in the short space of the last few years the quality, speed and detailing that is possible has increased significantly.

By using Tinkercad as a design tool for the students and in particular the classroom option the students accounts are still managed by the school - which means the designs previously created by the students are still accessible.

In particular there are designs and creations that previously were created that we are now in the process of revisiting.  An example that we are currently looking at is this design shown left.  Originally it was designed by a student in May 2024.   In both cases the print was completed with glow-in-the-dark filament - however when the two prints are compared to each other there is a clear difference from the quality of the finish.

The original finish is shown left.   The new version was completed by the Bambu H2D while the original (left) was the Snapmaker machine.   We have indicated that in 2026 we intend to be using the Snapmaker occasionally and the vast majority of the prints will be completed on the Bambu H2D.

The difference is particularly clear around the lettering on the print - which is much more detailed and sharp using the Bambu H2D.   The other significant factor is the time concerned.   With the Bamhu H2D the print time is fifty minutes - significantly under the original time.

The process is now to review the last three years of classroom designs (2023-2025) and identify projects or prints that were not attempted previously or where attempted but the details proved to be too challenging for the technology at the time.   We also have limited prints that date back much further than this, with the original .stl files to a number of projects and as a point of interest we will be selecting some of these to run them again using the newer printers.

It is still just under two weeks until our 2026 School year starts with our new classroom, we will be returning to our regular schedule of posting from then, thank you for your visit in the meantime.